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THE  REPUBLIC: 


OR, 


A   HISTORY 


OF    THK 


ONITED  STATES  OF  IMERItA 


IN 


THE  ADMINISTRATIONS, 


Rroivi    the    IVTonarchio    CoLONiAti    Days 
TO  THE  Present  Tiivies 


BY 

JOHN   ROBKRX  IRELAN.   IVL    D. 


IN    EIGHTEEN    VOLUIVIES. 

Volume  XVII. 


CHICAGO: 
Fairbanks  and  PALivrER  Publishing  Co. 

Boston:  Martin  Garrison  &  Co.    New  York:  John  Cummings. 

Washington,  D.  C:  W.  F.  Morse.      Cincinnati  :  The  Cincinnati  Publishing  Co. 

St.  Louis  :    E.  Holdoway.      Minneapolis  :   Buckeye  Publishing  Co. 

San  Francisco  :  J.  Dewing  &  Co. 

1888. 


COPYRIGHTED 

BY   Iv.   T.    F'A.LIVIER. 

1888. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED, 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


LIFE,  ADMINISTRATION, 
AND  TIMES 


OF 


Abraham  Lincoln, 

Jilrteenth  ^veoibent  of  ihe  "^nlteb  ^iate«. 


War  of  the  Rebellion, 

AND 

Downfall  of  Human  Slavery 


BY 


JOHN  ROBERT  IRELAN.  IVI.  D. 
ITST   TWO    VOLUMES. 

Volume  II. 


CHICAGO: 
Fairbanks  and  PAT^iviEFi   F*ublishinq  Co. 

Ifc588. 


COPYRIGHTED 

BY  I*.  T.   PALIVIER, 

1888. 


ML  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 


CONTKNTS. 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE. 

1861 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Big  Bethel — Butler 
AND  Wool  —  Scott's  Plan  —  Patterson  in  Vir- 
ginia— ' '  On  to  Richmond" — General  McDowell — 
First  Bull  Run — Loss  of  the  First  Great  Battle 
for  the  Union — "Forward  to  Washington" — 
Correcting  Errors 9 

CHAPTER  H. 

1861 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  "Thirty-seventh 
Congress" — Extra  Session — Mr.  Lincoln's  First 
Message — Personal  Liberty — Habeas  Corpus — 
Rights  of  the  Government 29 

CHAPTER  III. 

1861 — War  of  the  Rebellion — "Thirty-seventh 
Congress  " — Extra  Session — A  Few  Names  in  the 
"Rear-guard"  —  Political  Generals  —  The 
Negro,  his  Religion — "  Contraband  of  War" — 
The  Administration  and  the  Army  dealing  with 
Slavery — General  Butler 52 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1861 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Progress  of  the 
Rebels  at  Home  and  Abroad — McClellan  at 
the  Head  of  the  Union  Army — "All  Quiet  on  the 
Potomac" — Rosecrans  in  West  Virginia — Lyon 
AND  Fremont  in  Missouri — Battle  of  Wilson's 

Creek — The  Body-guard 73 

(3) 


4  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

1861  —  War  of    the    Rebellion  —  Battle    of    Pea* 
Ridge  —  Belmont  and    Columbus  —  Grant    and 
Halleck — Fort    Henry — Fort    Donelson — Mill 
Springs — Ball's  Bluff — The  Navy — A  General 
View — England — Burnside  in  North  Carolina    ,  102 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Congress  in  First  Regular  Session  under  Mr. 
Lincoln  —  First  Annual  Message  —  Folly  of 
"Habeas  Corpus"  —  Martial  Law  —  The  Chief 
Justice •      .        .        .  127 

CHAPTER  VH. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Congress  in  the 
Winter  of  1861 — Proposition  to  the  Border 
Slave  States  —  The  Confiscation  Act  —  Eman- 
cipation IN  THE  District  —  A  Grand  Moral 
Picture 160 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  The  Trent  Case  — 
Foreign  Affairs — The  Hand  of  Old  England — 
Course  of  the  "Ruling  Class"  —  The  Triple  Al- 
liance— America  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to 
be  crushed — maximilian — time,  the  avenger     .  177 

CHAPTER  IX. 

1862 — 1863 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Finance — The 
Greenback  —  Mr.  Chase  —  Politics,  Elections, 
Draft-riots  —  Great  Battle   of  the  Rebellion 

FOUGHT     AT     THE     NORTH — ThE     NEWSPAPERS — Mr. 

Lincoln  and  the  Aiders   and   Abettors — "Un- 
constitutional" BECOMES  A  By-word     .         .         .  200 


CONTENTS.  5 

CHAPTER  X.  PAGE. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  The  Development 
OF  Emancipation — The  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion— Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Deed  ....  229 

CHAPTER  XI. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Congress  in  the  Win- 
ter OF  1862 — Second  Annual  Message  —  West 
Virginia — An  Error 256 

CHAPTER  XH. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Island  No.  10 — Gen- 
eral Pope — New  Orleans — General  Butler — 
Farragut  and  his  Flotilla — Shiloh — Corinth — 
Perryville  —  Stone  River  — Where  stood  the 
God  of  Battles 282 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion — On  the  Potomac — 
Battle  of  the  Iron-clads — Lincoln  ^nd  Mc- 
Clellan — Williamsburg — Inharmonious  Rebels  .  307 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Rebel  Successes  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  —  McClellan  on  the 
' '  Peninsula  " — Seven  Pines — The  Chickahomin y — 
Seven  Days'  Battle 328 

CHAPTER  XV. 

1862 — War  of  the  Rebellion — McClellan  at  Har- 
rison's Landing — Evacuation  of  the  Peninsula — 
Lincoln  and  McClellan  —  An  Indefensible  Ca- 
reer— The  Great  General  not  yet  found         .  355 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI.  PAGE. 

1862  —  War  of  the  Rebellion  —  General  Pope  — 
Cedar  Mountain  —  Gainesville  —  Second  Bull 
Run  —  Chantilly  —  McClellan's  Hand  —  Three 
Hundred  Thousand  More — Lee  in  Maryland — 
Harper's  Ferry — South  Mountain — Antietam — 
Lincoln  and  McClellan — "Seeks  Quiet  and 
Repose  at  Last" 375 

CHAPTER  XVIL 

1863 — War  of  the  Rebellion — General  Burnside — 
Fredericksburg — General  Hooker  tried — Chan- 
cello  rsville— Stonewall  Jackson — Where  now 
STOOD  THE  "God  of  Battles?" — General  Meade 
and  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  —  Gettysburg — 
Lee  outgeneraled  ......  401 

CHAPTER  XVin. 

1863 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  The  West  — Vicks- 
BURG — Port  Hudson  —  The  Mississippi  Opened — 
Chick  AM  AUG  A  —  Chattanooga — Lookout  Mount- 
ain—  Battle  above  the  Clouds  —  Burnside  at 
Knoxville  —  Minor  Events  —  Negro  Soldiers — 
Fort  Pillow  —  Gillmore  at  Fort  Suimter — Mis- 
souri— The  Indians  —  The  Navy  —  England  hu- 
miliated— Proud  Mistress  of  the  Sea?        .         .  423 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

1863 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Congress  in  the  Win- 
ter OF  1863 — The  Message — The  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  repealed  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  Proclamations 
AND  Mistakes .  455 

CHAPTER  XX. 

War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  Burdens — 
His  Speech  at  Gettysburg — Meddlesome  Horace 


CONTENTS.  7 

Page. 
Greeley's  Doubtful  Conduct — Pseudo  Attempts 
AT  Negotiation 483 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

1864 — War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Nominations — Can- 
didates —  Platforms  —  Presidential  Election — 
No  Swapping  Horses  while  crossing  a  Stream — 
The  Cabinet 498 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

;1864 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Congress  in  the  Win- 
ter OF  1864 — Last  Session  under  Mr.  Lincoln — 
Fourth  Annual  Message — End  of  Slavery  .  513 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Overtures  for  Peace  — 
Mr.  Blair  and  Jefferson  Davis — Mr.  Lincoln's 
Second  Inaugural 533 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

1864 — War  of  the  Rebellion — Grant  and  Sherman — 
End  of  Mistakes — Atlanta  Campaign — Resaca — 
Kenesaw  Mountain — Dalton — Atlanta — Stone- 
man  —  From  the  Rapidan  to  Petersburg  —  The 
Wilderness  —  Cold  Harbor  —  Hood  in  Tennes- 
see —  Franklin  —  Nashville  —  Sherman  begins 
his  Wonderful  March  to  the  Sea      .        .         .  546 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Beginning  of  the  End  —  Sherman  in  North  Caro- 
lina —  Fall  of  Charleston  —  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Council  with  his  Great  Captains — Five  Forks — 
Fall  of  Richmond — Sherman  and  Johnston — End 
of  the  War — Closing  Scenes  in  the  Life  of  Mr. 
Lincoln — Death — The  Nation  in  Sorrow    .        .  563 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXVI.  p^ge. 

Character  and  Work  of  Abraham  Lincoln — A  Won- 
derful Study — The  Great,  the  Wise,  and  the 
Good 584 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Religion — Look  at  this  Man  of  Sor- 
row— What  Verdict? 604 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

Another  Picture — Mr.  Lin(joln's  Courtships — Mary 
Todd — The  Pugnacious  James  Shields         .        .  633 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

Mr.  Lincoln  at  Home  and  among  his  Books — The 
LiNCOLNS  IN  THE  White  House — The  Mistress     .  664 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Some  Choice  Sayings  of  Abraham  Lincoln        .        .  680 


LIFE,  ADMINISTRATION,  AND  TIMES 


OF 


Abraham  Lincoln, 

SIXTEENTH    PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 
March  4,  1861,  to  April  15,  1865. 


CHAPTER    I. 

1861— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— BIG  BETHEL  — BUTLER 
AND  WOOL— SCOTT'S  PLANS— PATTERSON  IN  VIRGINIA  - 
THE  CRY  OF  "ON  TO  RICHMOND  "—GENERAL  McDOW- 
ELL— FIRST  BULL  RUN— LOSS  OF  THE  FIRST  GREAT  BAT- 
TLE FOR  THE  UNION— "  FORWARD  TO  WASHINGTON"— 
CORRECTING  ERRORS. 

MARYLAND  having  undergone  a  sudden  change 
in  favor  of  the  Government,  the  great  channels 
of  communication  with  Washington  being  open,  and 
Baltimore  having  become  civil  to  Federal  soldiers, 
some  of  the  more  treacherous,  unyielding,  and  deter- 
mined of  the  rebel  citizens  being  confined  at  Fort 
McHenry,  on  the  22d  of  May  General  Butler  took 
command  of  Fortress  Monroe,  with  his  department 
nominally  embracing  North  Carolina  and  the  tide- 
water region  of  Virginia,  about  the  mouth  of  the 
Chesapeake.      Several    thousand    troops    were    soon 

gathered   under  his  command,  but  besides    laboring 

9 


10  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

under  the  misfortune   of  being  green  soldiers,  they 
had  inexperienced   and   incompetent  general  officers. 
During  the  season  General  Butler  undertook  but  one 
movement  of  much  importance,  and  this  resulted  dis- 
astrously.    On  the  9th  of  June  he  sent  out  a  strong 
force    under   E.  W.  Pierce,  a   Massachusetts    militia 
general,  who   had    never  seen   a   battle,  and   had  no 
skill  as  a  soldier,  hoping  to  drive  the  rebels  from  his 
front,  and  surprise  and  capture  them  at  Little  Bethel. 
Before   daylight   on   the   following   morning,  one  of 
Pierce's  regiments,  taking  another  for  a  regiment  of 
rebels,  fell  upon  it,  killing   and  wounding   a   number 
before  the  mistake  could  be  corrected.     This  unfor- 
tunate occurrence,  against  which   they  had  been  es- 
pecially warned,  disconcerted  the  .plans  of  the  expe- 
dition.     Still    Pierce,    sending    back    for    additional 
troops,  advanced  to  Big  Bethel,  where  he  found  the 
rebels    under    John    B.   Magruder,  a    much    superior 
officer,  awaiting  him.     A  fight  ensued,  in  which  the 
Union  loss  was  considerable,  while  that  of  the  rebels 
was  hardly  noticeable.     Pierce  succeeded  in  making 
a  very  reputable   and    orderly  retreat,  and   here   the 
matter  ended,  as  did  also  his  military  career.     Early 
in  the  fall  General  Butler  himself  was  succeeded  at 
Fortress  Monroe  by  General  John  E.  Wool,  but  not 
until  he   had    taken   another  important  step  in  his 
very  remarkable  war  record,  as  will  be  seen  farther  on. 
The   Governor   of  Pennsylvania,  with   the    quota 
from  that  State,  under  the  President's  first  call,  had 
sent  into   the   field   General    Robert  Patterson,  who 
in  his   better  days  had  made  some  reputation  as  a 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  11 

soldier.  With  the  three  months'  militia,  General  Scott 
believed  nothing  more  should  be  expected  or  under- 
taken than  opening  the  way  to  Washington,  securing 
that  city,  hokling  Maryjjind  and  the  Potomac,  secur- 
ing the  long  line  of  the  border  States,  and,  perhaps, 
recapturing  Harper's  Ferry.  This  was,  indeed,  an 
ambitious  plan  for  an  undisciplined  army,  to  remain 
in  service  but  ninety  days.  General  Patterson's 
head-quarters  had  been  established  nt  Chaipbeisburg, 
a  position  affording  him  a  good  opportunity  for  watch- 
ing the  rebels  in  Virginia,  and  operating  with  expe- 
dition ngainst  them  in  an  attempt  to  gain  a  foothohl 
in  Maryland,  a  purpose  about  which  there  was  no 
doubt,  however  impossible  its  execution.  Patterson 
deemed  Harper's  Ferry  of  great  importance,  if  not 
destined  to  be  the  battle-field  of  the  war,  where  the 
question  of  secession  was  to  be  speedily  settled. 
There  was  both  North  and  South  a  very  erroneous 
stress  put  upon  this  point,  and  especially  did  Lee 
and  Jefferson  Davis  consider  it  of  great  military  value 
to  them,  and  with  much  difficulty  did  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  when  sent  to  command  the  place,  induce 
them  to  assent  to  his  better  judgment  as  to  the  error 
concerning  its  value.  After  a  long  and  needless  de- 
lay, Patterson  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport 
about  the  middle  of  June  to  find,  greatly  to  his  sur- 
prise, that  Johnston  had  on  the  13th  and  14th  evac- 
uated and  burned  the  place,  and  withdrawn  to  Win- 
chester. Patterson  looked  upon  this  conduct  of  the 
rebel  general  in  the  light  of  a  victory  to  the  Union 
army   under  him,   and    so   reported.     But    he  again 


12  •  LIFE  AN^  TIMES  OF 

returned  to  the  north  side  of  the  Potomac,  where  he 
could  watch  the  further  movements  of  Johnston  with 
more  safety.  The  newly  developed  project  of  a 
movement  from  Washington  towards  Manassas  led 
General  Scott  to  order  Patterson  to  cross  into  Vir- 
ginia again  to  engage  the  attention  of,  if  not  attack, 
and  whip  Johnston.  This  order  he  executed  so  far 
as  to  advance  to  Martinsburg  and  a  place  called 
Bunker  Hill,  where  he  remained  until  Johnston,  con- 
cluding he  was  not  going  to  offer  fight,  stole  away  on 
the  17th  and  18th,  and  two  days  afterwards  joined 
Beauregard  with  the  greater  part  of  his  army  at  Bull 
Run,  thus  insuring  the  defeat  of  the  Union  army  un- 
der McDowell.  This  was  the  very  thing  General 
Patterson  was  expected  and  urged  to  prevent,  and  so 
General  Scott  informed  him.  And  yet  after  he  had 
allowed  Johnston  with  an  army  half  the  size  of  his 
own  to  run  away,  he  ridiculously  claimed  that  he  had 
done  more  than  the  General-in-Chief  meant  for  him 
to  do.  Patterson  was  then  sixty-nine  years  of  age, 
and  it  was  a  great  mistake  to  look  for  a  fight  in  this 
old  man,  or  to  risk  the  honor  and  safety  of  the  Nation 
in  his  keeping  on  the  field.  It  is  needless  or  boot- 
less to  say  that  he  was  persuaded  by  Fitz  John 
Porter  and  others  at  Bunker  Hill  to  turn  back  with- 
out fighting  Johnston.  General  Patterson  was  alone 
responsible  for  the  utter  failure  of  the  campaign 
under  him. 

The  purposes  to  be  carried  out  under  Patterson, 
to  some  extent  gave  rise  to  the  movement  toward 
Richmond,  and  finally  the  battle  of  Manassas  or  Bull 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.*  13 

Run.  It  was,  of  course,  seen  at  Washington,  that 
a  junction  between  Johnston's  force  at  Harper's 
Ferry  or  Winchester,  and  that  under  Beauregard  at 
Manassas  Junction,  only  thirty-five  miles  froin  Ar- 
lington Heights,  could  easily  be  effected.  The  rebels 
were  aware  that  a  contingency  of  this  kind  might 
arise,  and  from  the  outset  they  provided  for  it  as 
well  as  they  could.  Johnston's  desertion  of  Harper's 
Ferry  was  based  upon  the  possibility  of  this  emer- 
gency as  well  as  upon  the  movements  of  McClellan 
towards  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Accordingly,  when 
Patterson  was  ordered  to  cross  the  Potomac,  General 
McDowell  was  ordered  to  make  a  feint  movement 
from  Arlington  Heights  to  occupy  the  attention  of 
Beauregard,  who,  since  his  wonderful  achievement  at 
Fort  Sumter,  had  swelled  with  military  importance. 
McDowell's  movement  was  designed  by  General 
Scott  simply  as  a  diversion  in  favor  of  Patterson, 
and  nothing  more.  But  the  Administration  felt 
seriously  the  restless  spirit  of  the  loyal  North  at  this 
juncture,  where  there  was  a  general  cry  for  some- 
thing to  be  done.  The  three  months'  men  should 
put  down  the  Rebellion,  or  at  least  do  something 
more  toward  it  than  was  indicated  by  General  Scott's 
program.  "  On  to  Richmond  "  became  the  cry  of  the 
country,  and  to  some  extent  the  project  took  shape 
at  Washington.  Late  in  June  General  Irvin  Mc- 
Dowell in  command  at  Arlington  Heights  presented  to 
General  Scott  a  plan  for  an  attack  on  Manassas 
Junction  with  a  view  of  clearing  the  way  to  Rich- 
mond, and  in  a  war  council  at  the  President's  house 


14  »  LIFE  AN*D  TIMES  OF 

on  the  29th  of  June  it  was  decided  to  make  the 
move,  General  Scott  at  once  issuing  the  necessary 
orders,  and  the  preparation  began. 

General  Scott  believed  that  his  former  plans  were 
sufficiently  extensive,  and  in  the  council  stubbornly 
opposed  this  new  and  doubtful  adventure,  and  Mc- 
Dowell distinctly  asserted  that  he  couhl  not  whip 
Beauregard  and  Johnston  combined.  But  General 
Scott  thought  he  could  relieve  this  feature  of  the 
case  readily  by  forcing  PnUerson  to  his  assistance. 
So  on  the  16th  of  July  McDowell  began  his  march 
with  the  purpose  of  attacking  Beauregard  on  Satur- 
day, the  20th.  The  army  consisting  of  less  than 
thirty-five  thousand  men  of  all  lines  was  organized 
into  five  small  divisions  commanded  in  order  of  their 
numbers  by  General  Daniel  Tyler,  Colonel  David 
Hunter,  Colonel  S.  P.  Ileintzelman,  Colonel  Theodore 
Runyon,  and  Colonel  D.  S.  Miles.  But  Runyon's 
division  numbering  nearly  six  thousand  was  left  be- 
hind on  the  line  of  march,  no  part  of  it  going  so  far 
out  as  Centerville.  A  part  of  Miles's  division  was 
also  not  engaged. 

McDowell  took  the  Warrenton  Pike,  and  as  he 
advanced,  Beauregard's  outposts  withdrew,  until  at 
last  he  discovered  the  rebel  force  somewhat  less  than 
twenty  thousand  strong  posted  back  of  Bull  Run,  a 
fordable  creek  meanderin";  in  a  south-easterlv  course 
between  Centerville  and  Manassas  Junction,  at  the 
main  fords  in  a  broken  line  eight  miles  long  from  the 
Stone  Bridge  on  Warrenton  Pike  to  the  Orange  and 
Alexandria  Railroad. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  15 

On  the  18th  Tyler  made  a  reconnoisance  in  force 
towards  the  center  of  Beauregard's  position  about 
Blackburn's  Ford,  and  was  worsted  by  it,  the  affair 
having  reached  the  dignity  of  a  battle,  .and  gone  far 
beyond  his  instructions.  On  this  very  day  John- 
ston, by  orders  from  Richmond,  began  his  march  from 
Winchester  to  join  Beauregard,  and  about  noon 
Saturday,  with  a  few  regiments  reached  his  destina- 
tion, and  outranking  Beauregard,  assumed  command 
of  the  army. 

On  Thursday  night  McDowell  decided  to  cross  the 
Bun  above  the  Stone  Bridge,  turn  the  enemy's  left 
and  get  possession  of  Manassas  Gap  Railroad,  con- 
trary to  his  original  plan  of  turning  the  right  and 
clearing  the  way  to  Richmond  directly  by  Manassas 
Junction.  Two  considerations  led  him  to  this  change, 
first  the  difficulty  of  the  route  to  Manassas  Junction 
and  the  comparative  smoothness  of  the  country  by 
the  enemy's  left,  and  the  belief  that  this  course 
would  enable  him  to  prevent  Johnston  bringing  his 
army  to  the  help  of  Beauregard.  This  change  of  plan 
would  have  been  made  even  had  he  known  when  he 
made  it  that  the  junction  of  the  rebel  forces  would 
have  been  effected  before  he  could  carry  it  out. 

Friday  was  unfortunately  spent  in  locating  the 
crossings  of  Bull  Run  above  Stone  Bridge,  and  ar- 
ranging the  plan  of  battle,  and  Saturday  he  found 
himself  unable  to  move  owing  mainly  to  the  condi- 
tion of  his  supplies.  McDowell  knew  the  importance 
of  time  at  this  juncture,  having  now  been  greatly 
delayed  by  the  careless  and  unsoldier-like  habits  of 


16  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

his  army,  chiefly  composed  of  three  months'  militia. 
His  orders  for  the  battle  were  issued  on  Saturday 
night,  and  on  Sunday  morning  between  two  and  three 
o'clock  the  movement  began.  At  this  critical  mo- 
ment the  time  of  service  of  two  or  three  of  his  regi- 
ments expired,  and  these  deliberately  marched  for 
Washington  instead  of  towards  the  rebel  position, 
and  so  unsatisfactory  and  tardy  was  the  general 
movement  that  it  was  four  hours  after  Tyler  had 
fired  his  signal  gun  at  the  Stone  Bridge  before  the 
other  divisions  were  in  place  across  Bull  Run,  and 
the  battle  begun.  As  the  morning  broke,  the  rebels, 
who  had  also  prepared  for  an  attack  that  day  on 
McDowell,  were  not  long  in  discovering  the  unex- 
pected turn  in  his  advance  upon  their  left  instead  of 
their  center,  and  speedily  adapted  themselves  to  the 
circumstances.  Until  noon  the  battle  waged  with 
somewhat  unvarying  indications  of  a  complete 
triumph  of  the  Union  army,  notwithstanding  the  loss 
of  time  and  indifference  of  movements  in  the  early 
morning.  As  yet  McDowell  knew  nothing  of  the 
presence  of  Johnston  and  his  troops  on  the  rebel  side, 
and  had  no  reason  to  suspect  that  the  day  would 
close  on  his  utter  defeat. 

The  rebel  line  had  by  this  time  swung  around 
with  one  end  resting  on  Bull  Run  and  the  other  to- 
ward Manassas  Gap  Railroad,  facing  the  Warrenton 
Pike,  and  occupying  the  high  level  plateau  above 
Young's  Creek,  a  tributary  of  Bull  Run.  The  ad- 
vantage of  their  position  was  now  very  great,  while 
the  Union  army  having  driven  the  rebels  before  it  at 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  17 

every  point,  occupied  the  low  and  broken  ravine  or 
valley  along  Young's  Creek.  Many  of  the  rebels  had 
been  put  to  flight,  and  it  was  subsequently  held  by 
some  military  wiseacres  thnt  had  McDowell  continued 
after  them  to  Manassas  depot  and  abandoned  his  ad- 
vance up  the  hill  in  the  face  of  the  well-posted  force, 
the  whole  would  have  been  turned  into  a  rout,  and 
the  victory  have  been  easy.  Up  to  this  time  the 
rebel  army  had  not  been  well  handled,  and,  perhaps, 
this  would  have  been  so,  as  the  generals  on  that  side 
evidently  considered  their  prospects  very  doubtful 
when  they  began  to  take  position  on  the  plateau 
above  Young's  Creek,  and  the  rebel  fugitives  at  the 
railroad  declared  unanimously  that  they  were  already 
totally  defeated.  Subsequent  events  did  not  sustain 
the  appearances. 

But  McDowell  overlooked  the  true  position  of 
affairs  in  his  favor  in  this  direction,  and  prepared  to 
gain  possession  of  the  plateau,  where  the  rebels  soon 
massed  a  force  equal  to  his  own.  Several  desperate 
attempts  were  now  made  to  accomplish  his  purpose 
with  varying  success,  the  national  troops  driving  the 
rebels  before  them,  and  then  in  return  being  driven 
back  on  the  broken  ascent,  and  although  the  Ells- 
worth Zouaves  had  been  knocked  out  of  existence  as 
an  organization  by  mistaking  an  Alabama  regiment 
for  one  of  the  Union,  one  of  those  singular  accidents 
which  often  befall  armies  in  the  heat  of  conflict,  and 
several  other  similar  occurrences,  the  general  outlook 
was  still,  perhaps,  favorable  to  the  Government.  The 
demoralization  was,  however,  quite  apparent,  and  it 

2-Q 


18  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  very  evident  that  any  unforeseen  event  might 
instantly  decide  the  day  adversely. 

At  the  critical  juncture  this  event  was  not  want- 
ing. E.  Kirby  Smith  with  the  remainder  of  Johns- 
ton s  troops  from  Winchester  now  appeared  on  the 
ground,  and,  with  a  shout,  rushed  Jigainst  the  right 
flank  of  the  Union  army.  This  unexpected  assault 
sent  through  McDowell's  lines  the  cry  that  Johnston 
had  come  from  the  Shenandoah.  Other  rebel  troops 
were  thrown  into  the  conflict  at  this  moment,  when 
the  Union  forces  choosing  to  consider  the  attack  irre- 
sistible, fled  from  the  field,  and  the  first  great  battle 
for  the  perpetuation  of  human  slavery  was  ended. 

McDowell  covered  the  retreat  as  best  he  could 
with  his  small  force  of  regulars,  and  that  night  aban- 
doned the  determination  of  making  a  stand  at  Cen- 
terville.  The  rebels  made  little  or  no  pursuit,  and 
McDowell  leisurely  returned  to  the  neighborhood  of 
Washington.  The  loss  on  the  side  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  481  killed,  1,011  wounded,  and  1,460 
prisoners,  many  of  whom  were  wounded ;  on  the 
rebel  side  387  were  killed  and  1.582  wounded  and  a 
few  prisoners  were  taken.  Twenty-five  or  twenty- 
eight  of  McDowell's  forty -nine  guns  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  rebels,  chiefly  on  the  retreat  to  Center- 
ville,  where  they  had  to  be  abandoned  by  reason  of 
the  obstruction  of  the  road  by  the  army  wagons,  and 
considerable  quantities  of  army  stores,  small  arms 
and  baggage.  General  McDowell  deemed  it  advis- 
able to  leave  his  own  dead  to  be  buried  by  the  rebels, 
a  task  not  performed  by  them  for  several  days. 


ABE  AH  AM  LINCOLN.  19 

The  excitement  caused  throughout  the  entire 
country  by  this  defeat  of  the  national  army  was  in- 
describably intense,  but,  of  course,  of  entirely  dis- 
similar character  in  the  loyal  and  rebellious  sections. 
Universal  surprise,  dismay,  and  sadness  were  felt 
among  the  loyal  in  the  North,  while  shouts  of  exul- 
tation and  triumph,  exaggeration,  willful  misrepresen- 
tation, and  boasting  came  fi'om  the  victors.  When 
the  loyal  section  w^oke  up  to  the  realities  of  the  de- 
feat, and  began  to  see  that  a  large  disciplined  army 
and  a  long  contest  would  be  required  to  put  down 
the  Rebellion,  reasons  for  this  first  defeat  were 
eagerly  and  credulously  sought.  Many  of  those  who 
had  cried  "  On  to  Richmond,"  were  now  willing  to 
take  back  seats,  and  keep  their  hands  from  meddling. 
But  the  great  masses  were  still  ready  to  pa^s  judg- 
ment on  the  conduct  of  the  campaign.  What  was 
then  seen  dimly  was  in  time  plain  enough.  It  waS 
a  ver}^  difficult  matter  in  the  North  to  believe  that 
Southern  generals  and  Southern  soldiers  were  supe- 
rior, and  few  did  believe  it.  While  this  idea  went 
up  at  the  South,  it  was  justly  scouted  down  in  the 
loyal  section.  Everybod}^  was  blamed  for  the  dis- 
aster, and  everybody  set  out  with  a  determination  to 
see  the  disgrace  wiped  out.  On  the  Union  side  this 
was  a  great  advantage  derived  from  the  misfortune. 
Still  the  national  cause  suffered  bv  the  defeat  both 
at  home  and  abroad. 

* 

A  great  and,  perhaps,  unavoidable  difficulty  at 
this  time,  as  in  most  others  throughout  the  war,  was 
that  the  world  depended  largely  for  information  upon 


20  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  hundreds  of  newspaper  reporters  who  followed 
the  armies,  and  upon  the  unofficial  and  partisan  news- 
pnpers.  As  a  genernl  rule,  probably  the  reporters 
and  letter-writers  with  the  army  were  disposed  to 
tell  the  truth,  but  they  saw  so  little,  and  took  so 
much  for  granted,  and  wrote  amidst  such  limited  cir- 
cumstances that  nothing  better  should  have  been  ex- 
pected of  them.  Many  of  the  partisan  newspapers 
started  out  willfully  to  distort,  exjiggerate,  and  mis- 
represent everything  they  touched  in  favor  of  their 
own  side.  The  disposition  to  exaggerate  was  every- 
where, both  North  and  South,  extreme  and  appalling, 
among  all  classes  of  people.  There  was  no  place, 
indeed,  where  this  spirit  was  not  found ;  not  even  in 
the  pulpit,  nor  in  the  prayers  of  the  most  pious. 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  case  of  foreign  misrep- 
resentation, of  the  most  premeditated,  determined, 
unmitigated,  and  wicked  sort  was  that  of  '•'  The  Lon- 
don Times."  Of  this  unprincipled  but  influential 
English  paper,  Samuel  A.  Goddard,  of  Birmingham, 
says  in  his  work  entitled  "Letters  on  the  American 
Rebellion  :"— 

"At  the  outbreak  'The  London  Times'  declared  with 
exultation  that  the  'great  experiment  had  failed,'  that  the 
'  great  Republic  had  broken  up ;'  the  success  of  the  Re- 
bellion being  simply  a  question  of  time.  Therefore,  in 
accordance  with  its  proverbial  tactics  of  endeavoring  to  be 
on  the  winning  side,  it  lent  its  whole  weight  and  influence 
to  the  rebels,  in  order  to  obtain  the  result  predicted  and 
ardently  wished,  and  its  sophisms,  its  misrepresentations, 
its  insolence  throughout  the  conflict,  in  treating  of  Amer- 
ican affairs  knew  no  bounds.     It  sent  its  correspondent  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21 

America  for  the  express  purpose  of  damaging  the  Union 
and  bolstering  up  the  rebel  cause." 

Wm.  H.  Russell,  this  correspondent,  was  quite 
successful  in  carrying  out  the  exact  purpose  for 
which  he  was  sent  over  here.  He  wrote  up  the 
South,  and  wrote  down  the  Government,  and  the 
truth  never  constituted  any  fixed  part  of  his  inclina- 
tions or  work,  otherwise  he  would  not  have  been 
executing  his  master's  will. 

In  looking  back  from  this  remote  date  several 
more  or  less  important  things  appear  as  causes  of  the 
loss  of  the  first  great  battle  on  the  Union  side. 
Among  these  causes,  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  men- 
tion the  fact  of  the  Union  General  moving  out  and 
beginning  the  assault  on  Sunday.  If  he  had  not 
taken  this  step  the  rebels  would  have  done  so  on  the 
same  day.  It  is,  however,  certainly  true  that  had  he 
selected  his  position  on  the  high  lands  about  Center- 
ville,  it  would  have  been  greatly  to  his  advantage  and 
possibly  led  to  his  final  overthrow  of  the  enemy,  had 
he  awaited  to  be  attacked.  But  the  intelligence  and 
judgment  of  him  who  holds  to  the  belief  that  the 
misfortune  of  the  national  army  was  owing  to  its 
bringing  on  the  battle  on  Sunday  may  well  be  ques- 
tioned ;  nor  does  he  demonstrate  his  claim  to  superior 
and  commendable  piety  by  such  belief,  perhaps.  Still 
even  in  war,  customary  considerations,  as  well  as  re- 
ligious verity,  point  to  the  voluntary  observance  of 
the  Sunday. 

Among  the  undebatable  causes  of  the  defeat  were 
indecision  and  delays  at  Washington,  and  in  the  prog- 


22  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ress  of  the  army  when  once  set  in  motion ;  the  inac- 
tivity, disobedience,  and  failure  of  General  Patterson ; 
the  failure  of  Scott  to  send  ten  thousand  fresh  troops 
to  McDowell  from  Washington;  treachery,  both  civil 
and  military;  and,  perhaps,  superior  generalshij)  of 
the  rebels  on  the  field. 

In  his  "Narrative  of  Military  Operations,"  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston,  a  writer  altogether  incomparably 
superior  in  wisdom  and  fairness  to  Jefferson  Davis 
and  A.  II.  Stephens,  says  of  the  battle  of  Manassas, 
or  Bull  Run: — 

^'  If  the  tactics  of  the  Federals  had  been  equal  to  their 
strategy,  we  should  have  been  beaten.  If,  instead  of  being 
brought  into  action  in  detail,  their  troops  had  been  formed 
in  two  lines,  with  a  proper  reserve,  and  had  assailed  Bee 
and  Jackson  in  that  order,  the  two  Southern  brigades 
must  have  been  swept  from  the  field  in  a  few  minutes,  or 
enveloped.  General  McDowell  would  have  made  such  a 
formation,  probably,  had  he  not  greatly  underestimated 
the  strength  of  his  enemy." 

And  in  speaking  of  the  comparative  advantages 
of  his  force,  General  Johnston  says  : — 

"The  Northern  army  had  the  disadvantage,  a  great 
one  to  such  undisciplined  troops  as  were  engaged  on  both 
sides,  of  being  the  assailants,  and  advancing  under  fire  to 
the  attack,  which  can  be  well  done  only  by  trained  soldiers. 
They  were  much  more  liable  to  confusion,  therefore,  than 
the  generally  stationary  ranks  of  the  Confederates." 

It  would  have  been  but  ordinary  prudence  for 
General  McDowell  to  have  made  the  disposition  of 
his  undisciplined  troops  here  indicated.     He  did  not 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  23 

even  organize  a  "proper  reserve."  Miles's  dmsion 
left  at  Centerville,  and  a  part  of  it  making  a  feint 
against  the  rebel  center  at  Bull  Run,  was  not  called 
into  use  until  the  battle  was  lost,  and,  strangely 
enough,  the  division  of  Runyon,  stretched  out  about 
Vienna  and  along  the  way  to  Washington,  was  allowed 
to  remain  inactive. 

Patterson  deserved  all  the  censure  he  got  for 
failing  to  engage  and  whip  Johnston  at  Winchester, 
or  give  him  an  equal  race  to  Bull  Run;  but  the 
failure  at  Washington  to  send  the  greater  part  of  the 
army  there  to  McDowell's  aid  is  little  less  reprehen- 
sible. At  twelve  o'clock  on  Sunday  ten  thousand 
fresh  troops,  including  Runyon's  division,  should  have 
rushed  in  mass  upon  the  field  from  Washington, 
sweeping  the  rebel  army  before  it,  and  deciding  the 
fate  of  the  day  long  before  Kirby  Smith  came 
upon  the  ground,  bringing  the  same  good  fortune  to 
the  rebels. 

The  discipline  of  the  army  was  poor  enough,  and 
this  difficulty  was  greatly  augmented  b}"  the  crowds 
of  camp-followers,  and  the  curious  from  Washington, 
who  came  out  to  see  the  end  of  the  Rebellion.  From 
the  day  of  marching  from  Washington  the  army  was, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  influenced  by  the  groundless 
fancy  that  the  task  before  it  was  an  easy  one.  The 
men  and  the  vast  retinue  of  followers  and  sight-seers, 
to  say  nothing  of  some  of  the  officers,  looked  upon 
the  affair  as  a  grand  occasion,  fit  to  be  made  the 
most  of.  This  feeling  was  helped  on  by  the  fact 
that  the  term  of  enlistment   was   about   to   expire. 


24  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Taking  all  these  things  into  consideration,  the  men 
were  disposed  to  be  easy  and  indifferent.  Even  on 
Sunday  morning,  when  marching  to  engage  in  mortal 
combat,  in  a  position  wholly  novel  to  the  great  mass 
of  them,  they  amused  themselves  by  strolling  in  and 
out  of  the  ranks,  in  emptying  and  filling  their  can- 
teens, and  many  of  them  actually  took  off  their  shoes 
to  bathe  their  feet  and  wade  and  splash  about  in 
Bull  Run.  Still,  most  of  these  men  were  brave  and 
patriotic,  and  fought  like  old  soldiers,  and,  with  all 
the  disadvantages  against  them,  it  is  not  at  all  clear 
that  the  day  would  have  been  lost,  had  Kirby  Smith 
not  appeared  suddenly  on  the  scene,  bringing  a  new 
moral  and  physical  element  into  the  contest. 

This  battle  was  long  misrepresented  and  under- 
estimated, yet  it  was,  in  a  sense,  decisive  in  the 
great  struggle.  The  moral  and  political  effect,  at  the 
outset,  especially,  was  greatly  against  the  Govern- 
ment, but  in  this,  like  everything  else,  the  case 
was  much  exaggerated.  The  Nation  gained  in  energy 
and  determination  and  experience ;  and  while  the 
Rebellion  was  advanced  politically,  to  some  extent, 
perhaps,  at  the  time,  by  its  success  in  battle,  it  lost 
wonderfully  in  discipline  and  moral  force  id  home, 
the  only  place  it  ever  had  any  strength.  General 
Joseph  E.  Johnston  writes  thus  on  this  point: — 

"All  the  military  conditions,  we  know,  forbade  an  at- 
tempt on  Washington.  The  Confederate  army  was  more 
disorganized  by  victory  than  that  of  the  United  States  by 
defeat.  The  Southern  volunteers  believed  that  the  object 
of  the  war  had  been  accomplished  by  the  victory,  and  that 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  25 

they  had  achieved  all  that  their  country  required  of  them. 
Many,  therefore,  in  ignorance  of  their  military  obligations, 
left  the  army  not  to  return.  Some  hastened  home  to  ex- 
hibit the  trophies  picked  up  on  the  field ;  others  left  their 
regiments  without  ceremony  to  attend  to  wounded  friends, 
frequently  accompanying  them  to  hospitals  in  distant  towns. 
Such  were  the  reports  of  general  and  staff  officers,  and  rail- 
road officials.  Exaggerated  ideas  of  the  victory,  prevailing 
among  our  troops,  cost  us  more  men  than  the  Federal 
army  lost  by  defeat." 

These  men  had  started  out  with  the  idea  that  one 
Southern  man  was  equal  to  three  or  five  Northern 
ones,  and  the  war  was  only  regarded  as  a  grand 
chivalrous  adventure.  Their  habits  of  idleness,  ease, 
and  domineering  independence,  rendered  it  out  of  the 
question  for  them  to  entertain  any  other  views  until 
taught  it  by  hard  experience.  Thousands  of  the 
private  soldiers  went  into  the  army  with  servants, 
slaves,  by  their  sides,  or  carrying  ("  toting ")  their 
baggage  and  camping  and  housekeeping  outfit  along 
in  the  necessary  army  train ;  and  General  Johnston 
says  in  his  '"Narrative"  that  when  he  ordered  the 
evacuation  of  Harper's  Ferry  it  was  actually  found 
that  nearly  every  private  soldier  had  a  trunk  with 
which  to  obstruct  the  progress  of  the  movement. 
The  wants  and  comforts  of  these  luxuriant  men  of 
leisure  were  not  to  be  limited  to  the  narrow  bounds 
of  knapsack  and  canteen. 

Notwithstanding  the  general  sentiment  as  to  hav- 
ing whipped  the  Yankees  and  accomplished  so  much 
conclusively,  there  soon  arose  a  feeling  of  dissatis- 
faction in  the  South  touching  the  result  of  the  battle 


26  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  Bull  Run.  Long  before  the  cry  of  "  On  to  Rich- 
mond" WHS  heard  in  the  North,  the  general  demand 
of  the  South  was  "  Forward  to  Washington."  There 
may  have  been  little  more  thought  of  making  Wash- 
ington the  cnpital  of  the  slave  confederacy  than  there 
was  of  making  Richmond  the  seat  of  the  Federnl 
Government,  but  the  moral  and  political,  and  per- 
haps military,  effect  of  the  capture  of  the  National 
Capital  would  have  been  a  stupendous  send-off  to 
the  Rebellion.  And  now  when  the  sense  of  satis- 
faction wore  off,  and  it  began  to  be  seen  that  they 
were  no  nearer  writing  their  terms  in  Faneuil  Hall 
than  when  they  first  set  out,  complaints  sprang  up 
throughout  the  'South.  Every  non-combatant,  at 
least,  thought  he  had  discovered  that  Johnston's  vic- 
torious army  should  have  followed  McDowell  into 
Washington,  and  on  to  Maryland.  And  very  soon 
even  Johnston,  Beauregard,  and  Jefferson  Davis  fell 
into  a  quarrel  about  the  responsibility  as  to  the  fail- 
ure to  pursue  the  loyal  army  and  run  into  Washing- 
ton with  it.  The  more  they  talked  about  it  the 
further  they  went  apart,  and  the  more  dissatisfied 
became  the  general  public.  After  the  battle  was 
fought  and  won,  Jefferson  Davis  came  on  the  field, 
and  although  there  is  not  much  evidence  that  his 
presence  was  of  any  especial  consequence,  he  claimed 
more  to  himself  than  Johnston  and  Beauregard  were 
willing  to  admit.  While  the  merits  of  this  case  can 
now  be  of  no  importance,  if  they  ever  were  indeed,  one 
thing  is  quite  apparent,  that  few  of  these  men  ever 
lost    the    idea   of   self-glory,  however   gloomy    their 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  27 

cause  or  evil  its  purpose.  Little  General  Johnston 
would  not  even  engage  in  the  battle  of  Manassas 
until  he  had  first  settled  the  matter  of  rank  between 
himself  and  Beauregard ;  and  a  part  of  Beauregai'd's 
report  was  so  offensive  to  Mr,  Davis  that  he  asked 
for  its  modification,  and  this  not  being  done  he  mnde  a 
counter  statement;  and  the  rebel  "Congress"  at  Rich- 
mond struck  the  whole  thing  from  the  report.  If 
more  than  this  should  have  been  expected  from  the 
leaders  of  a  bad  and  hopeless  rebellion,  how  much 
more  should  have  been  expected  from  the  patriotic 
defenders  of  the  Republic? 

It  has  been  said  that  the  rebel  generalship  on  the 
field  was,  perhaps,  superior;  but  this  is  not  a  clear 
proposition.  The  rebel  commander  was  unduly  in- 
terested in  guarding  his  right  on  Bull  Run,  where 
McDowell  never  meditated  an  attack.  Although 
Johnston  criticises  McDowell's  neglect  as  to  his  re- 
serve corps,  his  own  arrangement  in  this  respect  was 
equally  wanting;  the  Lirge  reserve  force  he  might 
have  well  utilized,  he  left  idle  miles  down  Bull  Run 
and  at  Manassas  Junction;  and  for  failing  to  bring 
these  troops  up  and  throwing  them,  at  the  proper 
moment,  on  the  disconcerted  Federals,  Johnston  sub- 
sequently censured  himself.  The  rebel  generalship 
in  this  first  battle  was  wavering  and  uncertain,  with 
all  its  advantages,  and  wanting  in  that  decision  and 
rapidity  which  often  distinguished  it  at  a  later  date. 
So  unbroken  and  strong  was  the  Union  army  that 
Johnston  considered  himself  unable  to  pursue  it,  and 
so  equal  appeared  the  fighting  qualities  of  the  com- 


28  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

batants  that  this  trial  greatly  changed  the  erroneous 
current  of  public  opinion,  and  decided  the  fact  that 
the  contest  was  destined  to  be  long  and  sharp.  It 
should  also  have  been  the  last  battle,  as  when  the 
equality  of  fighting  capacity,  man  for  man,  had  been 
demonstrated,  leaders  of  ordinary  wisdom  and  calm- 
ness, knowing  where  was  the  great  preponderance  of 
numbers  and  resources,  should  have  seen  the  end. 
The  certainty  of  the  ultimate  failure  of  the  Rebellion 
was  never  more  apparent  than  it  was  after  the  first 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  although  this  was  not  fully  real- 
ized by  the  defenders  of  the  Union,  while,  perhaps, 
no  loyal  man  ever,  even  in  the  darkest  hour,  lost  his 
faith  in  this  result. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  29 


CHAPTER    II. 

1861— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— "THIRTY-SEVENTH  CON- 
GRESS"—EXTRA  SESSION— MR.   LINCOLN'S  FIRST 
MESSAGE  —  PERSONAL     LIBERTY  —  HABEAS 
CORPUS— RIGHTS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. 

AT  noon  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861,  Congress  as- 
sembled under  the  President's  proclamation  of 
April  15th.  The  Senate  was  now  found  to  have 
forty-nine  members,  thirty-one  being  Republicans, 
thirteen  Democrats,  and  five  were  called  Unionists. 
John  W.  Forney,  of  Philadelphia,  who  four  years 
previously  had  been  anxious  to  fill  a  place  in  the 
Cabinet  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  was  chosen  clerk  of  this 
branch. 

The  House  had  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight 
members,  one  hundred  and  six  being  Republicans, 
forty-two  Democrats,  twenty-six  Unionists,  and  four 
vacancies.  Galusba  A.  Grow,  of  Pennsylvania,  was 
elected  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  Emerson  Etheridge, 
of  Tennessee,  clerk.  Of  the  border  Slave  States, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Kentucky  were  fully  rep- 
resented ;  Missouri  and  Virginia  partially,  and  Ten- 
nessee had  Andrew  Johnson  in  the  Senate,  and 
Horace  Maynard  in  the  Lower  House.  On  the  next 
day  President  Lincoln's  first  message  was  received 
by  Congress. 


30  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


FIRST  MESSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : — 

Having  been  convened  on  an  extraordinary  occasion,  as 
authorized  by  the  Constitution,  your  attention  is  not  called  to 
any  ordinary  subject  of  legislation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  Presidential  term,  four 
months  ago,  the  functions  of  the  Federal  Government  were 
found  to  be  generally  suspended  within  the  several  States  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and 
Florida,  excepting  only  those  of  the  Post-office  Department. 

Witliin  these  States  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  cus- 
tom-houses, and  the  like,  including  the  movable  and  stationary 
property  in  and  a!)out  them,  had  been  seized,  and  were  held  in 
open  hostility  to  this  Government,  excepting  only  Forts  Pickens, 
Taylor,  and  Jefferson,  on  and  near  the  Florida  coast,  and  Fort 
Sumter,  in  Charleston  Harbor,  South  Carolina.  The  forts  thus 
seized  had  been  put  in  improved  condition  ;  new  ones  had  been 
built,  and  armed  forces  had  been  organized,  and  were  organ- 
izing, all  avowedly  with  the  same  hostile  purpose. 

The  f  )rts  remaining  in  the  possession  of  the  Ferleral  Gov- 
ernment in  and  near  these  States  were  either  besieged  or  menaced 
by  warlike  preparations,  and  especially  Fort  Sumter  was  nearly 
surrounded  by  well-protected  hostile  batteries,  with  guns  equal 
in  quality  to  the  best  of  its  own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter 
as  perhaps  ten  to  one.  A  disproportionate  share  of  the  Federal 
muskets  and  rifles  had  somehow  found  their  way  into  these 
States,  and  had  been  seized  to  be  used  against  the  Government, 
Accumulations  of  the  public  revenue,  lying  within  them,  had 
been  seized  for  the  same  object.  The  navy  was  scattered  in 
distant  seas,  leaving  but  a  very  small  part  of  it  within  the  im- 
mediate reach  of  the  Government.  Officers  of  the  Federal 
army  and  navy  had  resigned  in  great  numbers;  and  of  those 
resigning,  a  large  proportion  had  taken  up  arms  against  the 
Government.  Simultaneously,  and  in  connection  with  all  this, 
the  purpose  to  sever  the  Federal  Union  was  openly  avowed. 
In  accordance  with  this  purpose,  an  ordinance  had  been  adopted 
in  each  of  these  States,  declaring  the  States,  respectively,  to  be 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  31 

separated  from  tbe  National  Union.  A  formula  for  instituting 
a  combined  government  of  these  States  had  been  promulgated; 
and  this  illegal  organization,  in  the  character  of  Confederate 
States,  was  already  invoking  recognition,  aid,  and  intervention 
from  foreign  powers. 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  believing  it  to  be  an 
imperative  duty  upon  the  incoming  Executive  to  prevent,  if 
possible,  the  consummation  of  such  attempt  to  destroy  the  Fed- 
eral Union,  a  choice  of  means  to  that  end  became  indispensable. 
This  choice  was  made,  and  was  declared  in  the  Inaugural  Ad- 
dress. The  policy  chosen  looked  to  tbe  exhaustion  of  all  peace- 
ful measures,  before  a  resort  to  any  stronger  ones.  It  sought 
only  to  hold  the  public  places  and  property  not  already  wrested 
from  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the  revenue;  relying  for 
the  rest  on  time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box.  It  promised  a 
continuance  of  the  mails,  at  Government  expense,  to  the  very 
people  who  were  resisting  the  Government;  and  it  gave  repeated 
pledges  against  any  disturbance  to  any  of  the  people,  or  any  of 
their  rights.  Of  all  that  which  a  President  might  Constitution- 
ally and  justifiably  do  in  such  a  case,  everything  was  forborne, 
without  which,  it  was  believed  possible  to  keej)  the  Government 
on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's  first  full  day 
in  office),  a  letter  of  Major  Anderson,  commanding  at  Fort 
Sumter,  written  on  the  28th  of  February,  and  received  at  the 
War  Department  on  the  4th  of  March,  was,  by  that  Depart- 
ment, placed  in  his  hands.  This  letter  expressed  the  professional 
opinion  of  the  writer,  that  re-enforcements  could  not  be  thrown 
into  that  fort  within  the  time  for  his  relief,  rendered  necessary 
by  the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with  a  view  of  holding 
possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force  of  less  than  twenty  thou- 
sand good  and  well-disciplined  men.  This  opinion  was  concurred 
in  by  all  the  officers  of  his  command,  and  their  memoranda  on 
the  subject  were  made  inclosures  of  Major  Anderson's  letter. 
The  whole  was  immediately  laid  before  Lieutenant-General 
Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  Major  Anderson  in  opinion. 
On  reflection,  however,  he  took  full  time,  consulting  with  other 
officers,  both  of  the  army  and  the  navy,  and,  at  the  end  of  four 
days,  came  reluctantly  but  decidedly  to   the  same  conclusion 


32  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

as  before.  He  also  stated  at  the  same  time  that  no  such  suffi- 
cient force  was  then  at  the  control  of  the  Government,  or  could 
be  raised  and  brought  to  the  ground  within  the  time  when  the 
provisions  in  the  fort  would  be  exhausted.  In  a  purely  mili- 
tary point  of  view,  this  reduced  the  duty  of  the  Administration 
in  the  case  to  the  mere  matter  of  getting  the  garrison  safely  out 
of  the  fort. 

It  is  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that  position, 
under  the  circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous ;  that  the 
necessity  under  which  it  was  to  be  done  would  not  be  fully  un- 
derstood ;  that  by  many,*  it  would  be  construer"  as  a  part  of  a 
voluntary  policy;  that  at  home,  it  would  discourage  the  friends 
of  the  Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to  insure  to 
the  latter  a  recognition  abroad ;  that,  in  fact,  it  would  be  our 
national  destruction  consummated.  This  could  not  be  allowed. 
Starvation  was  not  yet  upon  the  garrison  ;  and  ere  it  would  be 
reached,  Fort  Pickens  might  be  re-enforced.  This  last  would  be 
a  clear  indication  of  policy,  and  would  better  enable  the  country 
to  accept  the  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter,  as  a  military  necessity. 
An  order  was  at  once  directed  to  be  sent  for  the  landing  of 
the  troops  from  the  steamship  BrooMyn,  into  Fort  Pickens, 
This  order  could  not  go  by  land,  but  must  take  the  longer  and 
slower  route  by  sea.  The  first  return  news  from  the  order  was 
received  just  one  week  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  news 
itself  was,  that  the  officer  commanding  the  Sahine,  to  which 
vessel  the  troops  had  been  transferred  from  the  Brooklyn,  acting 
upon  some  qvmi  armistice  of  the  late  Administration  (and  of 
the  existence  of  which  the  present  Administration  up  to  the 
time  the  order  was  dispatched,  had  only  too  vague  and  un- 
certain rumors  to  fix  attention),  had  refused  to  land  the  troops. 
To  now  re-enforce  Fort  Pickens,  before  a  crisis  would  be  reached 
at  Fort  Sumter,  was  impossible — rendered  so  by  the  near  ex- 
haustion of  provisions  in  the  latter-named  fort.  In  precaution 
against  such  a  conjuncture,  the  Government  had,  a  few  days 
before,  commenced  preparing  an  expedition,  as  well  adapted  as 
might  be,  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter,  which  expedition  was  in- 
tended to  be  ultimately  used,  or  not,  according  to  circum- 
stances. The  strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it  was  now 
presented ;  and  it   was  resolved  to  send  it  forward.     As  had 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  33 

been  intended,  in  this  contingency,  it  was  also  resolved  to 
notify  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  that  he  might  expect 
an  attempt  would  be  made  to  provision  the  fort ;  and  that,  if 
the  attempt  should  not  be  resisted,  there  would  be  no  effort  to 
throw  in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition,  without  further  notice,  or 
in  case  of  an  attack  upon  the  fort.  This  notice  was  accordingly 
given;  whereupon  the  fort  was  attacked,  and  bombarded  to  its 
fall,  without  even  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  provisioning 
expedition. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon,  and  reduction  of, 
Fort  Sumter  was,  in  no  sense,  a  matter  of  self-defense  on  the 
part  of  the  assailants.  They  well  knew  that  the  garrison  in 
the  fort  could,  by  no  possibility,  commit  aggression  upon  them. 
They  knew — they  were  expressly  notified — that  the  giving  of 
bread  to  the  few  brave  and  hungry  men  of  the  garrison,  was 
all  which  would  on  that  occasion  be  attempted,  unless  them- 
selves, by  resisting  so  much,  should  provoke  more.  They  knew 
that  this  Government  desired  to  keep  the  garrison  in  the  fort, 
not  to  assail  them,  but  merely  to  maintain  visible  possession, 
and  thus  to  preserve  the  Union  from  actual  and  immediate 
dissolution;  trusting,  as  herein  before  stated,  to  time,  discussion, 
and  the  ballot-box,  for  final  adjustment ;  and  they  assailed 
and  reduced  the  fort  for  precisely  the  reverse  object — to  drive 
out  the  visible  authority  of  the  Federal  Union,  and  thus  force 
it  to  immediate  dissolution.  That  this  Avas  their  object,  the 
Executive  well  understood;  and  having  said  to  them,  in  the 
inaugural  address,  "  You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being 
yourselves  the  aggressors,"  he  took  pains,  not  only  to  keep  this 
declaration  good,  but  also  to  keep  the  case  so  free  from  the 
power  of  ingenious  sophistry  as  that  the  world  should  not  be 
able  to  misunderstand  it.  By  the  affair  at  Fort  Sumter,  with 
its  surrounding  circumstances,  that  point  was  reached.  Then, 
and  thereby,  the  assailants  of  the  Government  began  the  con- 
flict of  arms,  without  a  gun  in  sight,  or  in  expectancy  to  return 
their  fire,  save  only  the  few  in  the  fort,  sent  to  that  harbor, 
years  before,  for  their  own  protection,  and  still  ready  to  give 
that  protection  in  whatever  was  lawful.  In  this  act,  discarding 
all  else,  they  have  forced  upon  the  country  the  distinct  issue : 
"Immediate  dissolution,  or  blood." 

3— Q 


34  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these  United 
States.  It  presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man  the  question, 
whether  a  constitutional  republic,  or  democracy — a  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  same  people — can,  or  can  not,  maintain 
its  Territorial  integrity  against  its  own  domestic  foes.  It  pre- 
sents the  question,  whether  discontented  individuals,  too  few  in 
numbers  to  control  Administration,  according  to  organic  law, 
in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pretenses  made  in  this  case, 
or  on  any  other  pretenses,  or  arbitrarily  without  any  pretense, 
break  up  their  government,  and  thus  practically  put  an  end 
to  free  government  upon  the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask:  "Is 
there,  in  all  republics,  this  inherent  and  fatal  weakness?" 
"Must  a  government  of  necessity  be  too  strong  for  the  liberties 
of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain  its  own  existence  ?" 

So  viewing  the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out  the 
war  power  of  the  Government ;  and  so  to  resist  force  employed 
for  its  destruction,  by  force  for  its  preservation. 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country  was 
most  gratifying,  surpassing  in  unanimity  and  spirit  the  most 
sanguine  expectation.  Yet  none  of  the  States  commonly 
called  Slaves  States,  except  Delaware,  gave  a  regiment  through 
regular  State  organization.  A  few  regiments  have  been  or- 
ganized within  some  others  of  those  States  by  individual  enter- 
prise, and  received  into  the  Government  service.  Of  course 
the  seceded  States,  so-called  (and  to  which  Texas  had  been 
joined  about  the  time  of  the  inauguration),  gave  no  troops  to 
the  cause  of  the  Union,  The  border  States,  so-called,  were  not 
uniform  in  their  action  ;  some  of  them  being  almost  for  the 
Union,  while  in  others,  as  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee, 
and  Arkansas,  the  "Union  sentiment  was  nearly  repressed  and 
silenced.  The  course  taken  in  Virginia  was  the  most  remark- 
able, perhaps  the  most  iraportant.  A  convention,  elected  by 
the  people  of  that  State  to  consider  this  very  question  of  dis- 
rupting the  Federal  Union,  was  in  session  at  the  capital  of 
Virginia  when  Fort  Sumter  fell.  To  this  body  the  people 
had  chosen  a  large  majority  of  professed  Union  men.  Almost 
immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter,  many  members  of  that 
majority  went  over  to  the  original  disunion  minority,  and,  with 
them,  adopted  an  ordinance  for  withdi'awing    the   State  from 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  35 

the  Union.  Whether  this  change  was  wrought  by  their  great 
approval  of  the  assault  upoii  Sumter,  or  their  great  resentment 
at  the  Government's  resistance  to  that  assault,  is  not  defi- 
nitely known.  Although  they  submitted  the  ordinance,  for 
ratification,  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  to  be  taken  on  a  day  then 
somewhat  more  than  a  month  distant,  the  convention  and  the 
Legislature  (which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same  time  and 
place),  with  leading  men  of  the  State,  not  members  of  either, 
immediately  commenced  acting  as  if  the  State  were  already  out 
of  the  Union.  They  pushed  military  preparations  vigorously 
forward  all  over  the  State.  They  seized  the  United  States 
armory  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  the  navy-yard  at  Gosport,  near 
Norfolk.  They  received,  perhaps  invited,  into  their  State  large 
bodies  of  troops,  with  their  warlike  appointments,  from  the  so- 
called  seceded  States.  They  formally  entered  into  a  treaty  of 
temporary  alliance  and  co-operation  with  the  so-called  "  Con- 
federate States,"  and  sent  members  to  their  Congress  at  Mont- 
gomery. And,  finally,  they  permitted  the  insurrectionary  gov- 
ernment to  be  transferred  to  their  capital  at  Richmond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant  insur- 
rection to  make  its  nest  within  her  borders;  and  this  Govern- 
ment has  no  choice  left  but  to  deal  with  it  where  it  finds  it. 
And  it  has  the  less  regret,  as  the  loyal  citizen  have,  in  due 
form,  claimed  its  protection.  Those  loyal  citizens  this  Govern- 
ment is  bound  to  recognize  and  protect,  as  being  Virginia. 

In  tlie  border  States,  so-called,  in  fact  the  middle  States, 
there  are  those  who  favor  a  podicy  which  they  call  "armed 
neutrality  ;"  that  is,  an  arming  of  those  States  to  prevent  the 
Union  forces  passing  one  way,  (jr  the  disunion  the  other,  over 
their  soil.  This  would  be  disunion  completed.  Figuratively 
speaking,  it  would  be  the  building  of  an  impassable  wall  along 
the  line  of  separation,  and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable  one  ; 
for,  under  the  guise  of  neutrality,  it  would  tie  the  hands  of  the 
Union  men,  and  freely  pass  supplies  from  among  them  to  the 
insurrectionists,  which  it  could  not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  At 
a  stroke,  it  would  take  all  the  trouble  off  the  hands  of  seces- 
sion, except  only  what  proceeds  from  the  external  blockade. 
It  would  do  for  the  disunionists  that  which,  of  all  things,  they 
most  desire,  feed  them  well,  and  give  them  disunion  without  a 


36  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

struggle  of  their  own.  It  recognizes  no  fidelity  to  the  Consti- 
tution, no  obligation  to  maintain*  the  Union  ;  and  while  very 
many  who  have  favored  it  are,  doubtless,  loyal  citizens,  it  is, 
nevertheless,  very  iujurious  in  effect. 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  Government,  it  may  be  stated 
that,  at  first,  a  call  was  made  for  seventy-five  thousand  militia  ; 
and  rapidly  following  this,  a  proclamation  was  issued  for  clos- 
ing the  ports  of  the  insurrectionary  districts  by  proceedings  in 
the  nature  of  blockade.  So  far  all  was  believed  to  be  strictly 
legal.  At  this  point  the  insurrectionists  announced  their  pur- 
pose to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  three  years, 
unless  sooner  discharged,  and  also  for  large  additions  to  the 
regular  army  and  navy.  These  measures,  whether  strictly  legal 
or  not,  were  ventured  upon  under  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular 
demand  and  a  public  necessity  ;  trusting  then,  as  now,  that  Con- 
gress would  readily  ratify  them.  It  is  believed  that  nothing 
has  been  done  beyond  the  constitutional  competency  of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered  a  duty 
to  authorize  the  commanding  general,  in  proper  cases,  according 
to  his  discretion,  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  or,  in  other  words,  to  arrest  and  detain,  without  resort 
to  the  ordinary  processes  and  forms  of  law,  such  individuals  as 
he  might  deem  dangerous  to  the  public  safety.  This  authority 
has  purposely  been  exercised  but  very  sparingly.  Nevertheless, 
the  legality  and  propriety  of  what  has  been  done  under  it  are 
questioned,  and  the  attention  of  the  country  has  been  called  to 
the  proposition  that  one  who  is  sworn  to  "  take  care  that  the 
laws  be  faithfully  executed  "  should  not  himself  violate  them. 
Of  course  some  consideration  was  given  to  the  questions  of 
power  and  propriety,  before  this  matter  was  acted  upon.  The 
whole  of  the  laws  which  were  required  to  be  faithfully  executed 
were  being  resisted,  and  failing  of  execution  in  nearly  one-third 
of  the  States.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of  execu- 
tion, even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear  that  by  the  use  of  the 
means  necessary  to  their  execution  some  single  law,  made  in 
such  extreme  tenderness  of  the  citizen's  liberty,  that  practically, 
it  relieves  more  of  the  guilty  than  of  the  innocent,  should,  to 
a  very  limited  extent,  be  violated  ?    To  state  the  question  more 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  37 

directly,  are  all  tbe  laws  but  one  to  go  unexecuted,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment itself  go  to  pieces,  lest  that  one  be  violated?  Even  in 
such  a  case,  would  not  the  official  oath  be  broken,  if  the  Gov- 
ernment should  be  overthrown,  when  it  was  believed  that  disre- 
garding the  single  law  would  tend  to  preserve  it?  But  it  was 
not  believed  that  this  question  was  presented.  It  was  not  be- 
lieved that  any  law  was  violated.  The  provision  of  the  Consti- 
tution that  "  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not 
be  suspended  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the 
public  safety  may  require  it,"  is  eqirivalent  to  a  provision — is  a 
provision — that  such  privilege  may  be  suspended  when,  in  cases 
of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  does  require  it.  It 
was  decided  that  we  have  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  that  the  pub- 
lic safety  does  require  the  qualified  suspension  of  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  which  was  authorized  to  be  made.  Now  it  is  in- 
sisted that  Congress,  and  not  the  Executive,  is  vested  with  this 
power.  But  the  Constitution  itself  is  silent  as  to  which,  or  who, 
is  to  exercise  the  power  ;  and  as  the  provision  was  plainly  made 
for  a  dangerous  emergency,  it  can  not  be  believed  the  framers 
of  the  instrument  intended  that,  in  every  case,  the  danger 
should  run  its  course  until  Congress  could  be  called  together; 
the  very  assembling  of  which  might  be  prevented,  as  was  in- 
tended in  this  case,  by  the  Rebellion. 

No  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an  opinion 
at  some  length  will  probably  be  presented  by  the  Attorney- 
General.  Whether  there  shall  be  any  legislation  upon  the  sub- 
ject, and  if  any,  what,  is  submitted  entirely  to  the  better 
judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  Government  had  been  so  extraor- 
dinary and  so  long  continued  as  to  lead  some  foreign  nations 
to  shape  their  action  as  if  they  supposed  the  early  destruction 
of  our  National  Union  was  probable.  While  this,  on  discovery, 
gave  the  Executive  some  coucern,  he  is  now  happy  to  say  that 
the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  the  United  States  are  now  every- 
where practically  respected  by  foreign  powers,  and  a  general 
sympathy  with  the  country  is  manifested  throughout  the  world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  War,  and 
the  Navy  will  give  the  information  in  detail  deemed  necessary, 
and  convenient  for  your   deliberation   and   action;  while  the 


38  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Executive  and  all  the  departments  will  stand  ready  to  supply 
omissions,  or  to  communicate  new  facts  considered  important 
for  you  to  know. 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means  for 
making  this  contest  a  short  and  a  decisive  one;  that  you  place 
at  the  control  of  the  Government,  for  the  work,  at  least  four 
hundred  thousand  men  and  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
That  number  of  men  is  about  one-tenth  of  those  of  proper  ages 
within  the  regions  where,  apparentl)',  all  are  willing  to  engage ; 
and  the  sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third  part  of  the  money  value 
owned  by  the  men  who  seem  ready  to  devote  the  whole.  A 
debt  of  six  hundred  millions  of  dollars  now  is  a  less  sum  per 
head  than  was  the  debt  of  our  Revolution  when  we  came  out 
of  that  struggle;  and  the  money  value  in  tlie  country  now 
bears  even  a  greater  proportion  to  what  it  was  the7i  than  does 
the  population.  Surely  each  man  has  as  strong  a  motive  now 
to  preserve  our  liberties  as  each  had  then  to  establish  them. 

A  right  result  at  this  time  will  be  worth  more  to  the  world 
than  ten  times  the  men  and  ten  times  the  money.  The  evi- 
dence reaching  us  from  the  country  leaves  no  doubt  that  the 
material  for  the  work  is  abundant,  and  that  it  needs  only  the 
hand  of  legislation  to  give  it  legal  sanction,  and  the  hand  of 
the  Executive  to  give  it  practical  shape  and  eflSciency.  One  of 
the  greatest  perplexities  of  the  Government  is  to  avoid  receiving 
troops  faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them.  In  a  word,  the 
people  will  save  their  Government  if  the  Government  itself 
will  do  its  part  only  indifferently  well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  difference 
whether  the  present  movement  at  the  South  be  called  "  seces- 
sion" or  "rebellion."  The  movers,  however,  well  understand 
the  diff*erence.  At  the  beginning  they  knew  they  could  never 
raise  their  treason  to  any  respectable  magnitude  by  any  name 
which  implies  violation  of  law.  They  knew  their  people  pos- 
sessed as  much  of  moral  sense,  as  much  of  devotion  to  law  and 
order,  and  as  much  pride  in  and  reverence  for  the  history  and 
government  of  their  common  country,  as  any  other  civilized 
and  patriotic  people.  They  knew  they  could  make  no  advance- 
ment directly  in  the  teeth  of  these  strong  and  noble  sentiments. 
A-Ccordingly  they  commenced  by  an  insidious  debauching  of  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  39 

public  mind.  They  invented  an  ingenious  sophism,  which,  if 
conceded,  was  followed  by  perfectly  logical  steps  through  all 
the  incidents  to  the  complete  destruction  of  the  Union.  The 
sophism  itself  is,  that  any  State  of  the  Union  may,  consistently 
with  the  National  Constitution,  and  therefore  lawfully  and  peace- 
fully, withdraw  from  the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the 
Union  or  of  any  other  State.  The  little  disguise  that  the  sup- 
posed right  is  to  be  exercised  only  for  just  cause,  themselves  to 
be  the  sole  judge  of  its  justice,  is  too  thin  to  merit  any  notice. 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated,  they  have  been  drugging 
the  public  mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
until  at  length  they  have  brought  many  good  men  to  a  willing- 
ness to  take  up  arms  against  the  Government  the  day  after  some 
assemblage  of  men  have  enacted  the  farcical  pretense  of  taking 
their  State  out  of  the  Union,  who  could  have  been  brought  to 
no  such  thing  the  day  before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  its  cur- 
rency from  the  assumption  that  there  is  some  omnipotent  and 
sacred  supremacy  pertaining  to  a  State,  to  each  State  of  our 
Federal  Union.  Our  States  have  neither  more  nor  less  power 
than  that  reserved  to  them  in  the  Union  by  the  Constitution, 
no  one  of  them  ever  having  been  a  State  out  of  the  Union. 
The  original  ones  passed  into  the  Union  even  before  they  cast 
off  their  British  Colonial  dependence ;  and  the  new  ones  each 
came  into  the  Union  directly  from  a  condition  of  dependence, 
excepting  Texas.  And  even  Texas,  in  its  temporary  indepen- 
dence, was  never  designated  a  State.  The  new  ones  only  took 
the  designation  of  States  on  coming  into  the  Union,  while  that 
name  was  first  adopted  for  the  old  ones  in  and  by  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Therein  the  "  United  Colonies  "  were  declared 
to  be  "free  and  independent  States;"  but  even  then  the  object 
plainly  was  not  to  declare  their  independence  of  one  another,  or 
of  the  Union,  but  directly  the  contrary,  as  their  mutual  pledge 
and  their  mutual  action  before,  at  the  time,  and  afterwards 
abundantly  show.  The  express  plighting  of  faith  by  each  and 
all  of  the  original  thirteen  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  two 
years  later,  that  the  Union  shall  be  perpetual,  is  most  conclusive. 
Having  never  been  States,  either  in  substance  or  in  name,  out- 
dde  of  the  Union,  whence  this  magical  omnipotence  of  *'  State 


40  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

rights,"  asserting  a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy  the  Union 
itself?  Much  is  said  about  the  "sovereignty"  of  the  States; 
but  the  word,  even,  is  not  in  the  National  Constitution ;  nor,  as 
is  believed,  iu  any  of  the  State  constitutions.  What  is  a  "sov- 
ereignty," in  the  political  sense  of  the  term?  Would  it  be  far 
wrong  to  define  it  "a  political  community,  witliout  a  political 
superior  ?"  Tested  by  this,  no  one  of  our  States,  except  Texas, 
ever  was  a  sovereignty.  And  even  Texas  gave  up  the  char- 
acter on  coming  into  the  Union  ;  by  which  act  she  acknowl- 
edged the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws 
and  treaties  of  the  United  States  made  in  pursuance  of  the 
Constitution,  to  be,  for  her,  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 
The  States  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and  they  have 
no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from  this,  they  can 
only  do  so  against  law  and  by  revolution.  The  Union,  and 
not  themselves  separately,  procured  their  independence  and  their 
liberty.  By  conquest  or  purchase,  the  Union  gave  each  of  them 
whatever  of  independence  and  liberty  it  has.  The  Union  is 
older  than  any  of  the  States,  and,  in  fact,  it  created  them  as 
States.  Originally  some  dependent  Colonies  made  the  Union, 
and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence  for  them, 
and  made  them  States,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of  them 
ever  had  a  State  constitution  independent  of  the  Union.  Of 
course,  it  is  not  forgotten  that  all  the  new  States  framed  their 
constitutions  before  they  entered  the  Union  ;  nevertheless,  de- 
pendent upon,  and  preparatory  to,  coming  into  the  Union. 

Unquestionably  the  States  have  the  powers  and  rights  re- 
served to  them  in  and  by  the  National  Constitution  ;  but  among 
these,  surely,  are  not  included  all  conceivable  powers,  however 
mischievous  or  destructive,  but,  at  most,  such  only  as  were 
known  in  the  world,  at  the  time,  as  governmental  powers;  and 
certainly  a  power  to  destroy  the  Government  itself  had  never 
been  known  as  a  governmental,  as  a  merely  administrative 
power.  This  relative  matter  of  national  power  and. State  rights, 
as  a  principle,  is  no  other  than  the  principle  of  generality  and 
locality.  Whatever  concerns  the  whole  should  be  confided  to 
the  whole,  to  the  General  Government ;  while  whatever  con- 
cerns only  the  State  should  be  left  exclusively  to  the  State.  This 
is  all   there   is    of  original   principle  about   it.     Whether  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  41 

National  Constitution,  in  defining  boundaries  between  the  two, 
has  applied  the  principle  with  exact  accuracy,  is  not  to  be  ques- 
tioned.    We  are  all  bound  by  that  defining,  without  question. 

What  is  now  combated  is  the  position  that  secession  is  con- 
sistent with  the  Constitution — is  lawful  and  peaceful.  It  is  not 
contended  that  there  is  any  express  law  iox  it;  and  nothing- 
should  ever  be  implied  as  law  which  leads  to  unjust  or  absurd 
consequences.  The  Nation  purchased  with  money  the  coun- 
tries out  of  which  several  of  these  States  were  formed.  Is  it 
just  that  they  shall  go  off  without  leave,  and  without  refund- 
ing? The  Nation  paid  very  large  sums  (in  the  aggregate,  I 
believe,  nearly  a  hundred  millions)  to  relieve  Florida  of  the 
aboriginal  tribes.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall  now  be  ofi"  without 
consent,  or  without  making  any  return  ?  The  Nation  is  now  in 
debt  for  money  applied  to  the  benefit  of  these  so-called  seceding 
States,  in  common  with  the  rest.  Is  it  just,  either  that  cred- 
itors shall  go  unpaid,  or  the  remaining  States  pay  the  whole? 
A  part  of  the  present  national  debt  was  contracted  to  pay  the 
old  debts  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that  she  shall  leave,  and  pay  no 
part  of  this  herself? 

Again,  if  one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another;  and  when 
all  shall  have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts.  Is  this 
quite  just  to  creditors?  Did  we  notify  them  of  this  sage  view 
of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their  money  ?  If  we  now  recognize 
this  doctrine  by  allowing  the  seceders  to  go  in  peace,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  what  we  can  do  if  others  choose  to  go,  or  to  extort 
terras  upon  which  they  will  promise  to  remain. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of  secession. 
They  have  assumed  to  make  a  national  constitution  of  their 
own,  in  which,  of  necessity,  they  have  either  discarded  or  retained 
the  right  of  secession,  as,  they  insist,  it  exists  in  ours.  If  they 
have  discarded  it,  they  thereby  admit  that,  on  principle,  it  ought 
not  to  be  in  ours.  If  they  have  retained  it,  by  their  own  con- 
struction of  ours  they  show  that  to  be  consistent  they  must 
secede  from  one  another  whenever  they  shall  find  it  the  easiest 
way  of  settling  their  debts  or  eflfecting  any  other  selfish  or  un- 
just object.  The  principle  itself  is  one  of  disintegration,  and 
upon  which  no  government  can  possibly  endure. 

If  all  the  States  save  one  should  assert  the  power  to  drive 


42  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

that  one  out  of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the  whole  class  of 
seceder  politicians  would  at  at  once  deny  the  power,  and  de- 
nounce the  act  as  the  greatest  outrage  upon  State  rights.  But 
suppose  that  precisely  the  same  act,  instead  of  being  called 
"driving  the  one  out,"  should  be  called  "the  secedicg  of  the 
others  from  that  one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the  seceders 
claim  to  do ;  unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point  that  the  one, 
because  it  is  a  minority,  may  rightfully  do  what  the  others,  be- 
cause they  are  a  majority,  may  not  rightfully  do.  These  poli- 
ticians are  subtle  and  profound  on  the  rights  of  minorities. 
They  are  not  partial  to  that  power  which  made  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  speaks  from  the  preamble,  calling  itself  "  We,  the 
People." 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is  to-day  a  ma- 
jority of  the  legally  qualified  voters  of  any  State,  except,  per- 
haps, South  Carolina,  in  favor  of  disunion.  There  is  much 
reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men  are  the  majority  in  many, 
if  not  in  every  other  one,  of  the  so-called  seceded  States.  The 
contrary  has  not  been  demonstrated  in  any  one  of  them.  It 
is  ventured  to  affirm  this,  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee;  for 
the  result  of  an  election,  held  in  military  camps,  where  the 
bayonets  are  all  on  one  side  of  the  question  voted  upon,  can 
scarcely  be  considered  as  demonstrating  popular  sentiment.  At 
such  an  election  all  that  large  class  who  are  at  once  for  the 
Union  and  against  coercion  would  be  coerced  to  vote  against 
the  Union. 

It  may  be  affirmed  without  extravagance  that  the  free  in- 
stitutions we  enjoy  have  developed  the  powers  and  improved 
the  condition  of  our  whole  people  beyr>nd  any  example  in  the 
world.  Of  this  we  now  have  a  striking  and  an  impressive 
illustration.  So  large  an  army  as  the  Government  has  now  on 
foot  was  never  before  known,  without  a  soldier  in  it  but  who 
had  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free  choice.  But  more 
than  this :  there  are  many  single  regiments  whose  members, 
one  and  another,  possess  full  practical  knowledge  of  all  the 
arts,*  sciences,  professions,  and  whatever  else,  whether  useful  or 
elegant,  is  known  in  the  world ;  and  there  is  scarcely  one  from 
which  there  could  not  be  selected  a  President,  a  Cabinet,  a 
Congress,    and,    perhaps,   a   Court,    abundantly  competent    to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  43 

administer  the  Government  itself!  Nor  do  I  say  this  is  not  true, 
also,  in  the  army  of  our  late  friends,  now  adversaries,  in  this 
contest ;  but  if  it  is,  so  much  better  the  reason  why  the  Gov- 
ernment which  has  conferred  such  benefits  on  both  them  ard 
us  should  not  be  broken  up.  Whoever,  in  any  section,  pro- 
poses to  abandon  such  a  Government  would  do  well  to  consider 
in  deference  to  what  princii)le  it  is  that  he  does  it;  what  better 
he  is  likely  to  get  in  its  stead ;  whether  the  substitute  will  give, 
or  be  intended  to  give,  so  much  of  good  to  the  people.  There 
are  some  foreshadowiugs  on  ^his  subject.  Our  adversaries 
have  adopted  some  declarations  of  independence,  in  which,  un- 
lijie  the  good  old  one  penned  by  Jefferson,  they  omit  tlie  words 
"All  men  are  created  equal."  Why?  They  have  adopted  a 
temporary  national  constitution,  in  the  preamble  of  which,  un- 
like our  good  old  one  signed  by  Washington,  they  omit  "We, 
the  people,"  and  substitute  "We,  the  deputies  of  the  sovereign 
and  independent  States."  Why?  Why  this  deliberate  pressing 
out  of  view  the  rights  of  men  and  the  authority  of  the  people? 

This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side  of  the 
Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world  that  form 
and  substance  of  Government  whose  leading  object  is  to  elevate 
the  condition  of  men ;  to  lift  artificial  weights  from  all  slioulders ; 
to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable  pursuit  for  all;  to  afford  all  an 
unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life.  Yield- 
ing to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from  necessity,  this 
is  the  leading  object  of  the  Government  for  whose  existence 
we  contend. 

I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people  under- 
stand and  appreciate^  this.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that,  while  in 
this  the  Government's  hour  of  trial  large  numbers  of  those  in 
the  army  and  navy  who  have  been  favored  with  the  offices 
have  resigned  and  proved  false  to  the  hand  which  had  pam- 
pered them,  not  one  common  soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known 
to  have  deserted  his  flag. 

Great  honor  is  due  to  those  officers  who  remained  true, 
despite  the  example  of  their  treacherous  associates;  but  the 
greatest  honor  and  most  important  fact  of  all  is  the  unanimous 
firmness  of  the  common  soldiers  and  common  sailors.  To  the 
last  man,  so  far  as  known,  they  have  successfully  resisted  the 


44  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

traitorous  efforts  of  those  whose  commands  but  an  hour  before 
they  obeyed  as  absolute  law.  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct  of 
plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an  argument,  that  the 
destroying  the  Government  which  was  made  by  Washington 
means  no  good  to  them. 

Our  popular  Government  has  often  been  called  an  experi- 
ment. Two  points  in  it  our  people  have  already  settled — the 
successful  establishing  and  the  successful  administering  of  it. 
One  still  remains — its  successful  maintenance  against  a  formi- 
dable internal  attempt  to  overthrow  it.  It  is  now  for  them  to 
demonstrate  to  the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry  an 
election  can  also  suppress  a  rebellion ;  that  ballots  are  the  right- 
ful and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets;  and  that  when  ballots 
have  fairly  and  Constitutionally  decided,  there  can  be  no  suc- 
cessful appeal  back  to  bullets ;  that  there  can  be  no  successful 
appeal  except  to  ballots  themselves  at  succeeding  elections. 
Such  will  be  a  great  lesson  of  peace ;  teaching  men  that  what 
they  can  not  take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they  take  it  by  a 
war  ;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of  a  war. 

Lest  there  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  candid  men 
as  to  what  is  to  be  the  course  of  the  Government  towards  the 
Southern  States  after  the  Rebellion  shall  have  been  suppressed, 
the  Executive  deems  it  proper  to  say  it  will  be  his  purpose 
then,  as  ever,  to  be  guided  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws; 
and  that  he  probably  will  have  no  different  understanding  of 
the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Federal  Government  relatively  to 
the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  peojile  under  the  Constitution 
than  that  expressed  in  the  Inaugural  Address. 

He  desires  to  preserve  the  Government,  that  it  may  be  ad- 
ministered for  all  as  it  was  administered  by  the  men  who  made 
it.  Loyal  citizens  everywhere  have  the  right  to  claim  this  of 
their  Government,  and  the  Government  has  no  right  to  withhold. 
or  neglect  it.  It  is  not  perceived  that,  in  giving  it,  there  is  any 
coercion,  any  conquest,  or  any  subjugation,  in  any  just  sense 
of  those  terms. 

The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States  have  accepted 
the  provision,  that  "  the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  this  Union  a  republican  form  of  government."  But 
if  a  State  may  lawfully  go  out  of  the  Union,  having  done  so. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  45 

it  may  also  discard  the  republicau  form  of  government;  so  that 
to  prevent  its  going  out  is  an  indispensible  viemis  to  the  end 
of  maintaining  the  guaranty  mentioned  ;  and  when  an  end  is 
lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispensable  means  to  it  are  also 
lawful  and  obligatory. 

It  was  with  the  greatest  regret  that  the  Executive  found  the 
duty  of  employing  the  war-power  in  defense  of  the  Govern- 
ment, forced  upon  him.  He  could  but  perform  this  duty,  or 
surrender  the  existence  of  the  Government.  No  compromise 
by  public  servants  could,  in  this  case,  be  a  cure;  not  that 
compromises  are  not  often  proper,  but  that  no  popular  govern- 
ment can  long  survive  a  marked  precedent  that  those  who  carry 
an  election  can  only  save  the  Government  from  immediate  de- 
struction by  giving  up  the  main  point  upon  which  the  people 
gave  the  election.  The  people  themselves,  and  not  their  serv- 
ants, can  safely  reverse  their  own  deliberate  decisions. 

As  a  private  citizen,  the  Executive  could  not  have  con- 
sented that  these  institutions  shall  perish ;  much  less  could  he, 
in  betrayal  of  so  vast  and  so  sacred  a  trust  as  these  free  people 
had  confided  to  him.  He  felt  that  he  had  no  moral  right  to 
shrink,  nor  even  to  count  the  chances  of  his  own  life,  in  what 
might  follow.  In  full  view  of  his  great  responsibility,  he  has, 
so  far,  done  what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now,  ac- 
cording to  your  own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely 
hopes  that  your  views  and  your  action  may  so  accord  with 
his  as  to  assure  all  faithful  citizens,  who  have  been  disturbed 
in  their  rights,  of  a  certain  and  speedy  restoration  to  them, 
under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws. 

And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without  guile  and  with 
pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go  forward 
without  fear,  and  with  manly  hearts. 

July  4,  1861. 

This  simple  and  brief  message  introduces  no  sub- 
ject but  the  one  in  every  man's  mouth,'  the  Rebell- 
ion ;  and  gives  a  clear  view  of  the  progress  of  the 
conspiracy  and  the  condition  and  demands  of  the 
country   at   that    moment.     The    message   in   a  few 


46  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

words  disposes  of  the  political  nightmare,  habeas  cor- 
pus, and  as  sententiously  handles  several  other  ques- 
tions in  the  destiny  of  the  Republic  brought  to  the 
test  by  the  struggle  for  its  overthrow.  The  loyal 
part  of  the  country  looked  with  profound  interest 
upon  this  message,  and  approved  it  by  word  and 
deed.  As  in  his  Inaugural  Address  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
earnestly  attempted  to  remove  erroneous  impressions 
touching  the  policy  of  his  Administration  in  dealing 
with  the  South  and  sbvery,  so  now  he  deemed  it 
necessary  to  offer  further  conciliation  to  the  South, 
and  especially  to  that  "  rear-guard  of  the  Rebellion  " 
sprinkled  through  the  North  and  now  arrayed  Mgainst 
every  step  of  the  Government,  in  Congress,  as  to  his 
treatment  of  the  South  after  the  suppression  of  the 
Rebellion.  In  few  words  the  message  disposes  of 
the  utterly  unstatesman-like,  unpatriotic,  foolish,  and 
contemptible  neutrality  scheme  of  some  of  the  border 
Slave  States,  notably  Kentucky. 

One  or  two  very  undignified  expressions  found 
their  way  into  the  message,  and  their  appearance 
there  can  not  be  justified  by  any  poverty  of  the 
American  (English)  language,  or  in  any  want  of 
gravity  in  the  subject;  nor  is  it  agreeable  to  hunt 
an  apology  for  them  in  the  peculiar  character  of  their 
author.  "Too  thin"  and  "sugar-coated"  are  ex- 
pressions hardly  to  be  looked  for  in  a  Presidential 
message,  at' any  time.  Mr.  F.  B.  Carpenter  makes 
the  following  statement  about  this  matter  : — 

"  Mr.  Defrees,  the  Government  Printer,  told  me  that, 
when  the  message  was  being   printed,  he  was  a  good  deal 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  47 

disturbed  by  the  use  of  the  term  '  sugar-coafed/  and  finally 
went  to  the  President  about  it.  Their  relations  to  each 
other  being  of  the  most  intimate  character,  he  told  Mr. 
Lincoln  frankly  that  he  ought  to  remember  that  a  message 
to  Congress  was  a  different  affair  from  a  speech  at  a  mass- 
meeting  in  Illinois;  that  the  message  became  a  part  of 
history,  and  should  be  written  accordingly.  '  What  is  the 
matter  now?'  inquired  the  President.  *  Why,'  said  Mr. 
Defrees,  '  you  have  used  an  undignified  expression  in  the 
message;'  and  then,  reading  the  paragraph  aloud,  he 
added,  '  I  would  alter  the  structure  of  that,  if  I  were  you.' 
'  Defi'ees,'  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  that  word  expresses  ex- 
actly my  idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to  change  it.  The  time 
will  never  come  in  this  country  when  the  people  won't 
know  exactly  what  sugar-coated  means.'  " 

Mr.  Lincoln  here  refers  to  the  charge  made  against 
him  of  violating  provisions  of  the  Constitution  he 
was  sworn  to  execute  faithfully.  This  charge  was 
made  as  to  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  cor- 
pus. It  was  made  in  reference  to  his  providing  for 
the  increase  of  the  regular  army;  and,  indeed,  the 
people  engaged  in  the  Rebellion,  and  their  virulent- 
spirited  friends  in  the  North  looked  upon  every  step 
of  the  Administration  as  unconstitutional.  "Uncon- 
stitutional" was  the  cry  from  the  beginning  of  the 
war  to  the  end  of  it.  This  was  one  of  tlie  most  re- 
markable features  of  the  Rebellion,  one  of  the  strangest 
hallucinations  of  that  evil  time.  Even  Jefferson 
Davis  and  other  Southern  writers  still  talk  with  the 
utmost  composure  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  unconstitutional 
acts.  In  the  strange  philosophy  that  controlled  the 
minds  of  the  rebel  leaders  only  their  own  acts  were 


48  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Constitutional  and  right.  Secession  was  right,  and 
everything  involved  under  it,  from  the  theft  of  a 
Springfield  rifle  to  piracy  on  the  "  high  seas."  from 
the  destruction  of  the  property  of  the  Nation  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Nation  itself;  the  ignoring  of  the 
Constitution  and  all  laws  to  the  setting  up  of  a  system 
in  defiance  of  the  Government  and  the  will  of  the 
majority  of  the  whole  people.  And  yet  these  men 
talked  of  the  unconstitutional  course  of  the  Adminis- 
tration and  its  loyal  supporters ;  and  in  Congress,  from 
the  short  session  of  the  Senate  in  March,  1861,  to 
the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  there  always 
were  a  few  men  constituting  the  most  pestiferous  and 
nefarious  part  of  the  Northern  rear  contingent  of  the 
Rebellion  who  opposed  persistently  every  act  of  legis- 
lation and  every  purpose  and  step  of  the  Executive 
looking  to  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  Newspaper 
articles  and  even  books  were  written  on  ''illegal  im- 
prisonments," "illegal  arrests,"  and  other  "  illegal " 
acts  of  the  Administration.  A  hue  and  cry  rang 
from  Maine  to  Missouri  if  the  authorities  raised  a 
hand  to  suppress  a  loud-mouthed  sympathizer  and 
busy,  secret  aider  and  abettor  of  the  Rebellion  !  The 
liberties  of  the  American  people  were  lost !  Personal 
liberty  was  a  mockery  in  the  land  of  the  free  !  Even 
from  the  South,  where  every  form  of  national  law  had 
been  set  at  defiance,  and  the  will  of  the  Richmond 
managers  become  the  only  law,  strangely  enough  echo 
everywhere  persistently  answered  this  unreasonable 
cry  from  the  North.  In  a  conspiracy  all  things  are 
fair,  and  on  this  principle  the  Southern  leaders  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  49 

their  friends  in  the  North  acted  from  the  beginning 
of  James  Buchanan's  Administration,  indeed  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  before,  until  the  death  of  shivery 
and  the  virtual  overthrow  of  the  utterly  false  polit- 
ical, social,  and  moral  sentiments  on  which  the  sys- 
tem 'was  founded  and  maintained. 

To  talk  of  the  Administration  observing  the  Con- 
stitution or  any  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
under  it  in  dealing  with  the  Rebellion,  was  then  and 
always  has  been  folly  to  even  every-day  common 
sense  and  patriotism.  The  Rebellion  set  them  aside, 
and  refused  to  hear  or  obey  them,  and  to  attempt  to 
apply  them  to  it  would  have  been  idiocy  and  suicide 
on  the  part  of  the  Government  authorities.  The  Ad- 
ministration was  only  bound  to  use  the  instruments 
of  self-preservation  for  the  Government,  all  of  them, 
without  reference  to  Constitution  or  laws.  Forced 
war  created  its  own  conditions,  and  nothing  could 
rightfully  modify  these  but  the  spirit  of  Christian 
civilization.  If  it  was  right  to  preserve  this  Nation, 
it  was  right  to  attempt  to  do  it  by  every  means  at 
all  countenanced  by  such  civilization.^ 

What  the  President  did  in  reference  to  the  loyal 
States  was  rightfully  done  under  the  sanction  of  the 
Constitution  as  far  as  the  state  of  rebellion  permitted 
such  a  course,  nnd  no  patriot,  no  loyal  man,  ever  had 
any  real  ground  of  complaint,  or  any  disposition  to 
complain.  Modified  as  explained  here,  there  was  but 
one  law  which  the  Administration  was  bound  to  re- 
spect in  the  least  and  greatest  act :  the  interests  of 
the  Nation   require   it,  the  public  good   demands  it. 

4-Q 


50  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Although  the  innocent  sometimes  unavoidably  suf- 
fered, arbitrary  arrests  and  imprisonments  were 
founded  upon  this  principle,  and  they  were  perfectly 
right  among  the  other  means  of  putting  down  the 
Rebellion.  No  man's  personal  liberty  wjis  to  be 
placed  for  a  moment  in  the  scale  against  the  life  or 
good  of  the  Nation.  Barring  the  mistakes  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  none  but  evil-doers 
then  suffered,  or  ever  have  suffered,  from  its  hands, 
and  suffering  should  be  the  lot  of  the  evil-doer. 
No  government  is  worthy  of  a  moment's  respect 
which  tolerates  the  demoniacal  sentiment  that  any 
man  or  community  has  a  right  to  do  anything  he 
pleases.  Under  a  Christian,  or  even  a  moral  civilized 
polity,  no  man  is  free  to  do  anything  but  what  shall 
conduce  to  the  general  good,  or  the  good  of  the  indi- 
vidual, or  be  in  itself  right.  The  demon  of  madness 
or  badness  no  government  and  people  have  any  right 
to  respect. 

Notwithstanding  the  cry  of  "  military  despotism," 
of  "usurpations"  in  the  Administration,  a  far  more 
despotic  system  was  set  up  by  the  rebel  managers 
at  Richmond.  First  went  to  the  ground  State  Rights, 
the  principle  on  which  secession  was  based,  and  then 
followed  the  liberties  of  the  sovereigns,  the  people. 
But  all  this  was  right,  if  the  Rebellion  was  what  it 
was  claimed  to  be,  a  government.  And  even  being 
what  it  was,  it  was  but  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
it  would  use  the  obvious  means  of  success,  that  it 
would  remove  from  its  path  elements  of  mischief  or 
poisonous  influences.     The  imprisonment  and  hard- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  5l 

ships  of  John  Minor  Botts,  Henry  S.  Foote,  and  thou- 
sands of  others,  loyal  from  the  outset,  or  sometime 
later  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  rebel  authorities, 
or  even  the  very  existence  of  the  Rebellion,  were 
things  to  be  expected,  and  even  justifiable,  as  far  as 
anything  could  be  justifiable  in  the  attempt  to  give 
success  to  an  evil  cause. 


LIBPARy  „..  . 

UNJVER3JTY  OF  if  n»«nt«^  | 


52  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  III. 

1861— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— "THIRTY-SEVENTH  CON- 
GRESS"—EXTRA  SESSION— A  FEW  NAMES  IN  THE 
"REAR-GUARD"— POLITICAL  GENERALS— THE  NEGRO, 
HIS  RELIGION— "  CONTRABAND  OF  WAR"— THE  AD- 
MINISTRATION AND  THE  ARMY  DEALING  WITH  SLAV- 
ERY—GENERAL BUTLER. 

CONGRESS  at  once  pledged  itself  to  engage  in  no 
legislation  not  designed  for  the  called  session  as 
indicated  in  the  President's  message,  and  the  House 
showed  the  spirit  by  which  it  was  actuated  in  pass- 
ing the  following  resolution  offered  by  John  A.  Mc- 
Clernand,  a  Democrat,  from  Illinois  : — 

"  This  House  hereby  pledges  itself  to  vote  for  any 
amount  of  money  and  any  number  of  men  which  may  be 
necessary  to  insure  a  speedy  and  effectual  suppression  of 
the  Rebellion,  and  the  permanent  restoration  of  the  Fed- 
eral authority  everywhere  within  the  limits  and  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  United  States." 

Against  this  resolution  there  were  five  votes,  two 
from  Kentucky,  two  from  Missouri,  and  one  from 
New  York.  The  Senate  subsequently  passed  a  sim- 
ilar resolution,  J.  C.  Breckinridge  opposing.  The 
first  few  days  in  the  House  were  spent  in  consider- 
ing the  question  of  disputed  seats,  and  in  decid- 
ing upon  the  case  of  Virginia  as  represented  by  men 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  63 

chosen  west  of  the  Alleghany  under  the  view  that 
the  State  Convention  had  not  consulted  the  will  of 
the  people  in  taking  the  State  ''  out  of  the  Union." 
The  Virginians  were  admitted ;  and  on  the  13th  two 
Senators  appeared  from  that  State,  and  after  some 
opposition  from  the  two  Senators  from  Delaware,  one 
from  Missouri,  one  from  Kentucky,  and  one  from 
Indiana,  they  were  sworn  in,  and  took  the  seats  from 
which  Mason  and  Hunter  had  been  declared  expelled. 
In  his  message  the  President  had  entirely  ignored 
the  question  of  slavery,  and  although  Congress  at- 
tempted to  do  the  same  thing  in  this  session,  it  was 
by  no  means  successful.  Most  of  the  border  State 
men  and  the  Democrats  were  exceedingly  tender  on 
this  point.  They  were  the  main  effective  part  of 
the  Northern  "  rear-guard,"  and  appeared  to  consider 
the  sacred  "institution"  especially  intrusted  to  their 
keeping.  However  distant  the  point  of  legislation  it 
was  almost  sure  to  fall  into  slavery,  the  subject  which 
for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  had  been  the  politi- 
cian's main  reliance.  And  not  until  after  the  battle 
of  Bull  Run  did  the  Republicans  approach  the  sub- 
ject with  an  air  of  freedom  about  them.  On  the  9th 
Owen  Lovejoy,  of  Illinois,  offered  in  the  House  this 
proposition  : — 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House,  it  is  no 
part  of  the  duty  of  the  soldier  of  the  United  States  to 
capture  and  return  fugitive  slaves." 

This  was  passed  only  by  a  vote  of  ninety-two  to 
fifty-five.     To  the  Army  Appropriation  Bill,  C.  L.  Val- 


54  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

landigham    proposed    this     startling   and    ridiculous 
addition : — 

"  Provided,  however,  that  no  part  of  the  money  hereby 
appropriated  shall  be  employed  in  subjugating,  or  holding 
as  a  conquered  province,  any  sovereign  State  now  or  lately 
one  of  the  United  States;  nor  in  abolishing  or  interfering 
with  African  slavery  in  any  of  the  States." 

William  Allen,  in  campaign  parlance  known  as 
"Rise -up  William  Allen,"  of  Ohio,  offered  this 
resolution  : — 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  no  part  of  the  object  of  the  pres- 
ent war  against  the  rebellious  States  to  interfere  with  the 
institution  of  slavery  therein." 

This  piece  of  drivel  was  simply  ruled  as  out  of 
order.  To  the  bill  for  the  reorganization  of  the 
army,  L.  Powell,  of  Kentucky,  proposed  the  following 
wonderful  addition  : — 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  no  part  of  the  army 
or  navy  of  the  United  States  shall  be  employed  or  used  in 
subjugating  or  holding  as  a  conquered  province  any  sover- 
eign State  now  or  lately  one  of  the  United  States." 

John  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  offered  this  amendment 
to  Powell's  proposition  : — 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  the  purposes  of  the 
military  establishment  provided  for  in  this  act  are  to  pre- 
serve the  Union,  to  defend  the  property,  and  to  maintain 
the  Constitutional  authority  of  the  Government." 

This  was  passed  with  four  dissenting  votes,  the 
Senators  from  Kentucky  and  Missouri.     Whereupon 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  55 

John    C.   Breckinridge   immediately   presented    this 
addition  : — 

"  But  the  army  and  navy  shall  not  be  employed  for  the 
purpose  of  subjugating  any  State,  or  reducing  it  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  Territory  or  province,  or  to  abolish  slavery 
therein. 

But  this  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  thirty  to  nine. 

During  the  debates  on  this  bill  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  quite  extensively  discussed,  and  especially 
as  a  cause,  or  the  cause,  of  the  Avar;  as  was  also  the 
new  insincere  and  foolish  distinction  between  the  co- 
ercion of  a  State  and  the  coercion  of  a  State's  rebell- 
ious citizens.  On  this  momentous  subject  Mr.  0.  A. 
Browning,  of  Illinois,  said  : — 

"  I  will  not  stop  to  deal  with  technicalities  ;  I  care 
not  whether  yon  call  it  the  subjugation  of  the  people  or 
the  sul)jugation  of  the  State,  where  all  the  authorities  of  a 
State,  where  all  the  officers,  who  are  the  embodiment  of 
the  power  of  the  State,  who  speak  for  the  State,  who  rep- 
resent the  government  of  the  State,  where  they  ai'e  all 
disloyal  and  banded  in  treasonable  confederation  against 
this  Government,  T,  for  one,  am  for  subjugating  them  ; 
and  you  may  call  it  the  subjugation  of  the  State,  or  of  the 
people,  just  as  you  please." 

There  never  was  the  shadow  of  a  ground  for  an 
argument  or  distinction  on  this  point,  and  the  men 
who  talked  it  were  simply  insincere  or  foolish.  Where 
there  were  no  people  there  was  no  State,  and  the  ad- 
ministration in  a  State,  by  no  mere  political  me- 
tonymy, the  world  over,  stands  for  the  State. 

Mr.  Sherman,  of  Ohio,  in  speaking  of  the  purpose 


56  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  the   war,  and    denying   that   the   Administration 
meditated  the  abolition  of  slaA^ery  through  it,  said : — 

"  It  is  not  waged  for  any  such  purpose,  or  with  any 
such  view.  They  have  all  disclaimed  it.  Why  then  does 
the  Senator  (Powell)  insist  upon  it?  I  will  now  say,  and 
the  Senator  may  make  the  most  of  it,  that,  rather  than 
see  one  single  foot  of  this  country  of  ours  torn  from  the 
national  domain  by  traitors,  I  will  myself  see  the  slaves 
set  free ;  but  at  the  same  time  I  utterly  disclaim  any  pur- 
pose of  that  kind.  If  the  men  who  are  now  waging  Avar 
against  the  Government,  fitting  out  pirates  against  our 
commerce,  going  back  to  the  old  mode  of  warfare  of  the 
middle  ages,  should  prosecute  this  Rebellion  to  such  an 
extent  that  there  is  no  way  of  conquering  South  Carolina, 
for  instance,  except  by  emancipating  her  slaves,  I  say 
emancipate  her  slaves  and  conquer  her  rebellious  citizens; 
and  if  they  have  not  people  there  enough  to  elect  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  we  will  send  people  there." 

Further  on,  in  discussing  the  bill  for  confiscating 
property  used  in  the  Rebellion,  Thaddeus  Stevens 
said : — 

"  I  warn  Southern  gentlemen  that,  if  this  war  is  to 
continue,  there  will  be  a  time  when  my  friend  from  New 
York  (A.  S.  Diven)  will  see  it  declared  by  this  free  Nation 
that  every  bondman  in  the  South,  belonging  to  a  rebel — 
recollect,  I  confine  it  to  them — shall  be  called  upon  to  aid 
us  in  war  against  their  masters,  and  to  restore  this  Union." 

Mr.  Vallandigham  proposed  to  make  the  following 
astounding  addition  to  the  bill  for  calling  out  an  army 
of  half  a  million  men  : — 


(( 


Provided,  further,  that  before  the  President  shall  have 
the  right  to  call  out  any  more  volunteers  than  are  now  in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  57 

the  service,  he  shall  appoint  seven  commissioners,  whose 
mission  it  shall  be  to  accompany  the  army  on  its  march,  to 
receive  and  consider  such  propositions,  if  any,  as  may  at 
any  time  be  submitted  by  the  executive  of  the  so-called 
Confederate  States,  or  of  any  of  them,  looking  to  a  sus- 
pension of  hostilities,  and  the  return  of  said  States,  or  any 
of  them,  to  the  Union,  or  to  obedience  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution and  authorities."     » 

This  person  also  introduced  some  resolutions  con- 
demning the  increase  of  the  army,  the  blockade  of 
Southern  ports,  the  seizure  of  telegraph  dispatches, 
the  arbitrary  arrests  of  persons  giving  aid  and  comfort 
to  or  suspected  of  complicity  with  the  rebels,  and 
most  acts  of  the  Government  authorities ;  and  bitterly 
opposed  the  bill  for  legalizing  all  the  nets  of  the  Pres- 
ident, rendered  necessary  by  the  progress  of  the  Re- 
bellion previous  to  the  meeting  of  Congress. 

So  throughout  this  short  session,  ending  on  the 
6th  of  August,  these  misguided  and  unwise  men  in 
vain  attempted  to  place  every  obstruction  possible  in 
the  way  of  the  Administration,  or  to  divert  legislation 
into  unreasonable  and  injurious  channels.  Prominent 
among  these  men  were  John  C.  Breckinridge  and  most 
of  the  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the  border 
Slave  States,  with  such  men  as  Vallnndigham,  George 
H.  Pendleton,  William  Allen,  Jesse  D.  Bright,  S.  S. 
Cox,  D.  W.  Voorhees,  and  others  of  less  note.  While 
it  may  be  held  that  some  of  these  men  were  patriotic- 
ally aiming  at  the  best  interests  of  the  whole  country, 
two  things  are  true  and  always  have  been  true  about 
them,  namely:    that  their  course  in  Congress  gave 


58  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

hope  and  courage  to  the  rebel  cause,  and  to  some 
extent  weakened  and  disturbed  the  Administration 
and  the  loyal  supporters  of  the  Government;  and 
that  had  any  great  per  cent,  or  all  of  their  proposed 
measures,  been  sanctioned  by  Congress  and  carried  out 
by  the  Administration  and  the  people,  the  Rebellion 
would  have  succeeded,  the  Republic  been  destroyed, 
and  political  anarchy  inaugurated  in  this  country. 
Some  of  these  men  greatly  modified  their  course  sub- 
sequently, but  there  were  always  a  few  of  them  in 
Congress,  and  their  influence,  however  trifling,  pointed 
in  the  wrong  direction;  and,  to  a  large  extent,  they 
constituted  the  head  of  that  small  column  of  North- 
ern men  who  formed  throughout  the  war  a  sort  of 
Northern  contingent  of  the  Rebellion,  and  whose 
main  duty  it  was  to  obstruct  the  way  of  the  national 
army  and  fire  upon  its  rear.  Some  exceedingly 
worthy  men  at  other  periods  of  their  lives,  now  and 
then,  dropped  out  of  this  column,  while  others  re- 
mained in  it,  throwing  the  most  notable  part  of  their 
existence  into  the  history  of  the  Rebellion,  the  most 
inexplicable,  indefensible,  and  offensive  page  of  which 
is  that  telling  their  deeds  and  connecting  their  names 
with  it. 

There  was  but  one  thing  for  Congress  to  do  at 
this  time,  and  that  it  did,  prepare  for  war.  On  the 
22d  of  July,  the  following  resolution,  introduced  by 
John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky,  was  passed  without 
noteworthy  opposition : — 

"  Bc.9oIved,  By  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  That  the  present  deplorable  civil 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  59 

war  has  been  forced  upon  the  country  by  the  disuuionists 
of  the  Southern  States  now  in  revolt  against  the  Constitu- 
tional Government,  and  in  arms  around  the  Capital;  that 
in  this  national  emergency  Congress,  banishing  all  feeling 
of  mere  passion  or  resentment,  will  recollect  only  its  duty 
to  the  whole  country ;  that  this  war  is  not  waged  on  our 
part  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  nor  for  any  purpose  of 
conquest  or  subjugation,  nor  purpose  of  overthrowing  or 
interfering  with  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of 
the  States,  but  to  defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of 
the  Constitution,  and  to  preserve  the  Union,  with  all  the 
dignities,  equality,  and  rights  of  the  several  States  unim- 
paired ;  and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accomplished 
the  war  ought  to  cease." 

No  special  session  of  Congress  had  ever  been 
more  important  and  none  ever  did  the  work  before 
it  more  expeditiously  and  satisfactorily.  It  sanc- 
tioned and  legalized  the  acts  of  the  President,  pro- 
vided for  the  payment  of  the  militia  and  volunteers 
that  had  been  called  out,  authorized  the  President 
to  organize  another  army  not  over  five  hundred 
thousand  strong,  and  laid  down  the  necessary  pro- 
visions for  its  organization ;  it  provided  for  the  col- 
lection of  the  revenue,  declaring  rebel  ports  closed, 
and  the  forfeiture  of  the  vesels  owned  by  rebels ;  it 
authorized  a  vast  national  loan,  and  made  appropria- 
tions for  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  civil  service, 
then  supposed  to  be  sufficient  for  the  emergency ;  it 
provided  for  the  increase  of  the  regular  army,  for  the 
purchase  of  arms,  and  the  increase  of  the  navy,  to  in- 
demnify the  States  for  their  outlay  in  arming  the 
three  months'  men,  and  for  punishing  conspiracies  and 
piracy ;  it  provided  for  the  increase  of  the  rate  of  pay 


60  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

for  soldiers,  for  the  construction  of  war  vessels;  and 
it  provided  for  the  confiscation  of  property  used  in 
the  Rebellion,  and  in  particular  the  forfeiture  forever 
after  of  all  claims  on  the  part  of  rebels  to  slaves 
used  in  any  way  to  the  benefit  of  the  Rebellion. 

It  was  the  great  misfortune  of  the  Government  at 
the  be^^inning  and  for  the  first  half  of  the  war  that  a 
large  per  cent  of  army  officers  was  drawn  from  the 
various  ranks  of  civil  life,  and  wholly  without  mili- 
tary experience.  This  misfortune  was  very  materially 
increased  by  the  fact  that  most  of  these  inexperienced 
general  officers  were  politicians,  who,  besides  being 
patriots  and  acting  as  such,  seldom  lost  sight  of  their 
own  political  chances  in  the  future.  A  regular  and 
irregular  business  of  these  officers,  in  season  and  out 
of  season,  wns  haranguing  the  soldiers ;  and  the  op- 
portunity of  snatching  an  advantage  to  win  a  victory 
or  complete  a  triumph  on  many  a  battle-field  was 
lost  by  the  faculty  of  these  men  to  make  speeches. 
In  an  analysis  of  General  Grant's  successful  military 
career,  the  most  admirable  and  first  observable  fea- 
ture is  the  absence  of  speeches  and  verbose  and  ex- 
travagant proclamations.  And  not  until  the  Nation 
got  at  the  head  of  its  armies  generals,  not  politicians, 
men  who  were  soldiers  by  habits  of  mind  and  life, 
and  who  left  political  considerations  entirely  out  of 
their  estimates  of  war  power  for  crushing  the  Re- 
bellion, and  who  preferred  even  to  sign  their  orders 
by  the  points  of  their  swords,  there  was  little  or  no 
advance  made  toward  the  end  in  view.  Yet,  in  the 
general   conduct  of  the   war,  political   considerations 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  61 

could  not  be  wholly  ignored.  The  value  of  the  bor- 
der Slave  States  in  the  contest,  and  the  tender  re- 
gard of  the  Administration  for  their  loyal  people, 
gave  rise  to  the  undecided  and  temporizing  policy 
pursued  in  reference  to  them,  but  that  the  evil  of 
the  policy  was  more  than  the  good  may  well  be 
doubted.  The  inevitable  necessity  of  events,  and 
not  the  disposition  of  the  Administration,  in  the 
course  of  time  changed  this  policy  quite  as  soon  as 
the  power  of  the  Government  was  available  for  the 
execution  of  a  more  determined  and  soldierly  new 
one.  It  was  difficult  for  the  Administiation  and  the 
country  to  distinguish  between  political  and  military 
necessities,  and  the  disposition  was  general  to  test 
every  step  by  old  party  standards.  The  conduct  of 
the  Administration  and  the  loyal  people  could  have 
been  viewed  in  no  other  light,  disinterestedly,  than 
that  it  was  the  Republican  party  which  was  on  trial 
in  a  test  for  an  extended  lease  on  the  administration 
of  the  Government.  All  these  things  now,  when 
looked  at  by  themselves,  appear  like  misfortunes 
great  enough  to  have  ruined  the  noblest  cause.  But 
their  importance,  to  some  extent,  disappears,  and 
their  evil  influence  was  lost,  in  the  fact  that  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Rebellion  were  conducted  on  the  same  plan. 
One  of  the  wisest  features  of  the  Military  Bill  of 
the  special  session  of  Congress  was  the  provision  for 
officering  the  volunteers  to  some  extent  with  regu- 
larly educated  soldiers,  and  bringing  portions  of  the 
regular  troops  in  contact  with  the  vast  volunteer 
army.     At  the  time  the  war  began  it  was  supposed 


62  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

that  about  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  graduates  of 
West  Point  were  living,  and  over  eight  hundred  of 
them  were  yet  connected  with  the  army.  Only  one- 
fifth  of  these  went  over  to  the  Rebellion.  Of  those 
who  returned  to  civil  pursuits,  a  greater  proportion 
was  believed  to  be  disloyal.  Still  this  left  a  large 
body  of  educated  military  men  to  become  the  drill- 
masters  and  disciplinarians,  and  finally  the  successful 
leaders  of  the  magnificent  armies  of  the  Republic. 
In  the  navy  the  proportion  of  officers  who  remained 
loyal  was  somewhat  greater,  and  among  the  men  of 
both  army  and  navy  there  were  few  who  ever  became 
untrue  to  the  country. 

Although  there  was  a  strong  disposition  at  first 
to  keep  the  negro  out  of  the  war,  the  possibility  of 
doing  so  became  evidently  less  day  by  day.  He 
had  constituted  the  chief  political  theme  too  long  to 
be  set  aside  so  easily  at  the  outset  of  a  great  conflict 
based  entirely  upon  the  question  Avhether  he  should 
some  time  be  free  or  forever  remain  a  slave.  Very 
different  ideas  existed  in  the  two  sections  as  to  the 
course  the  negro  would  himself  choose,  and  as  far  as 
practicable,  carry  out  during  the  struggle. 

About  the  almost  universal  desire  among  the 
slaves  for  freedom,  there  was  no  mistake,  but  it  was  a 
great  error  on  the  part  of  the  North  to  suppose  that 
they  would  constitute  a  source  of  internal  weakness 
which  would  in  itself  go  far  toward  the  destruction 
of  the  Rebellion.  The  Southern  leaders  were  better 
acquainted  with  the  condition  and  character  of  their 
slaves.     They  feared  no  insurrections.     And  from  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  63 

day  the  first  war  note  was  sounded,  this  vast  element 
of  strength  to  the  Rebellion  was  brought  into  requisi- 
tion. There  was  no  hesitancy  about  what  should  be 
done  with  the  negro.  While  there  was  no  thought 
of  clothing  him  as  a  black  knight  and  sending  him 
forth  to  fight  and  win  the  right  to  forge  an  eternal 
chain  for  himself,  with  the  spade  and  ax  in  his  hands 
he  was  to  bear  the  brunt  of  hardships,  to  lighten  and 
ennoble  the  deeds  of  a  race  of  chivalrous  masters. 
He  was  to  be  the  faithful  guardian  of  the  home  when 
its  lord  was  on  the  battle-field;  he  was  to  till  the 
soil,  and  whiten  the  spacious  plantations  with  cotton, 
still  declared  to  be  king,  and  erroneously  set  down 
as  the  unfailing  source  of  wealth  to  back  the  Re- 
bellion, and  without  which  it  must  ultimately  fail,  no 
matter  what  else  it  might  have  to  recommend  it  or 
bring  to  its  aid.  As  to  cotton,  the  rebels  missed 
their  calculations  entirely,  the  very  effective  block- 
ade of  their  ports  by  the  Government,  early  forcing 
them  to  abandon  its  culture,  to  a  great  extent,  to 
raise  the  grain  they  expected  to  import  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  army  and  country.  The  effectiveness  of 
the  blockade  and  the  failure  of  their  hopes  as  to 
cotton  were  well  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  at 
the  end  of  the  war,  in  an  utterly  bankiupt  country, 
there  were  found  several  millions  of  dollars'  worth 
of  the  great  staple  which  it  had  been  impossible  to 
convert  into  money,  war  material,  or  provisions. 

But  the  negroes  never  betrayed  their  old  masters. 
They  only  did  one  thing  when  they  could,  they  ran 
away.     As  to  the  outcome  of  this  step  there  seemed 


64  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  be  little  concern.  It  was  the  way  to  freedom ; 
and  that  implied  everything  good  in  the  world  which 
they  had  never  been  able  to  taste.  These  slaves 
were  divided  into  two  classes  by  their  pursuits  and 
by  their  intellectual  attainments :  servants  about  the 
house  and  in  mechanical  pursuits,  and  field-hands  of 
both  sexes.  As  they  approached  the  persons  of  their 
masters  and  came  more  in  close  relations  with  the 
whites,  their  skins  became  lighter,  and  their  faces 
and  forms  became  more  perfect  and  pleasing,  and 
their  mental  development  and  civilization  were  ad- 
vanced. In  both  classes  the  negroes  were  faithful, 
mainly,  to  their  masters'  homes,  which  they  always 
regarded  as  their  own,  and  were  more  or  less  proud 
of  them,  according  to  the  standing  and  wealth  of  the 
master,  whose  name  they  bore. 

In  all  the  arguments  and  talks,  mainly  foolish, 
great  and  entirely  undue  stress  was  always  put  upon 
the  Christian  civilization  of  the  African  by  his  en- 
slavement in  this  country.  And  for  the  fine  results 
reached  in  this  way,  of  course,  the  credit  has  been 
chiefly  given  to  the  women  and  the  clergy.  The 
man  who  has  lived  in  the  South,  or  who  has  traveled 
well  there,  has  made  little  use  of  his  faculties,  or 
had  none  for  use  which  were  worthy  of  respectable 
consideration,  who  has  not  observed  and  thought  of 
the  sham  there  is  about  negro  morals,  negro  piety, 
and  everything  in  the  outward  manifestation  of  negro 
Christian  civilization.  Follow  a  negro  "  revival  meet- 
ing," in  and  out,  for  one  week,  even  to-day  no  farther 
south  than   the  famous   Blue    Grass   region  of  Ken- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  65 

tucky,  and  then  say  that  there  is  not  something 
amazingly  grotesque  about  it;  that  this  nmch-hiuded 
Christian  civilization  into  which  the  poor  African  has 
been  elevated  is  not  the  most  absurdly  and  disgust- 
ingly grotesque,  if  not  blasphemous  and  infamous,  of 
all  human  burlesques ;  with  only  one  mitigating  cir- 
cumstance, that  it  is  better  than  nothing. 

I  do  not,  however,  blame  these  people  for  their 
low  grade  of  Christianity,  but  I  shall  never  stand 
up  as  a  warm  eulogist  of  those  who  taught  it.  It  is 
true  thji.t  the  simplest  or  highest  thing  which  a  child 
or  a  man  of  any  grade  can  learn  may  be  taught  so 
as  to  take  the  most  refined  and  elevated  form;  but 
it  was  never  meant  to  teach  the  slave  even  the  poor 
degree  af  religious  intelligence  and  refinement  known 
to  the  master.  A  higher  idea  of  God  he  never  reached 
than  of  a  very  all-seeing  or  very  exacting  "master." 
That  view  of  it  was  best  for  all  concerned.  It  was 
not  uncommon  for  the  so-called  religious  slaves  to 
represent  themselves  in  the  most  foolish  ways,  as 
holding  frequent  intercourse  with  the  devil  as  a  mon- 
strous or  personal  form  of  evil,  or  with  God  in  some 
form,  and  their  theology  was  of  the  rudest,  wildest, 
and  most  sensual  kind.  The  fine  morals  of  Chris- 
tianity they  were  never  taught,  and  did  not  possess. 
With  the  signs  and  forms  of  Christianity  learned  by 
example,  police  regulations,  and  otherwise,  they  mixed 
strange  and  ineonsistent  conduct.  Their  coarse,  so- 
called,  religious  ecstasies  were  often  mere  cloaks  and 
farces.  After  months  of  hard  teaching  the  pious 
missionary  asked  his  Fiji  Island  parishioners  what, 

5-Q 


66  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

after  all,  was  the  highest  end  of  man,  and  received 
for  a  deliberate  reply  :  "  To  steal  oxen." 

Many  years  ago  I  met  a  Winnebago  Indian  on  the 
Minnesota  River,  and,  after  the  usual  salute,  he  invited 
me  to  go  ashore  and  play  a  game  of  cards,  adding  the 
observation  that  he  was  an  honest  man  and  a  good 
gambler.  He  was  unable  to  see  any  incongruity  in 
this  brief  eulogy.  Was  the  Christian  civilization  of 
slavery  much  more  than  this  ?  Put  it  all,  or  the  rem- 
nants of  it,  to-day  in  the  scales  against  a  life  of  un- 
restrained, stivage  freedom,  and  how  would  the  matter 
intrinsically  stand  ? 

But  to  resume  the  main  point  designed  for  this 
chapter.  It  was  the  sincere  desire  of  the  Adminis- 
tration at  the  outset,  and  for  months  subsequently, 
to  put  down  the  Rebellion  without  annoyance  from 
the  slavery  question.  Mr.  Lincoln  would  have  been 
glad  if  he  could  have  restored  the  Union  as  it  was 
in  this  particular,  as  well  as  others.  Although  he 
had  said  this  Nation  could  not  exist  part  slave  and 
part  free,  he  would  not  have  settled  the  question 
in  his  time,  perhaps,  but  put  it  in  the  way  of 
certain  settlement  in  the  course  of  years  by  the 
consent  of  the  people.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  no  enthu- 
siasm about  this  negro  question,  and  was  only  con- 
ditionally a  friend  of  the  negro  race.  The  whole 
matter  was  thrust  upon  him.  He  approached  it  with 
extreme  caution,  and  got  more  credit,  perhaps,  for 
his  final  course  than  his  original  inclination  or  actual 
motive  justified. 

The   troops  under  the  President's  first  call  were 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  67 

especially  noted  also  for  similar  caution  in  dealing 
with  the  negro.  Burnside  and  other  officers  to  whom 
slaves  applied  to  be  protected  returned  them  to  their 
masters,  or  refused  to  accept  them  in  the  c;unps,  and 
in  West  Virginia  McClellan  appeared  as  a  very  cham- 
pion of  slavery,  and  seemed  to  be  willing  to  turn  his 
bayonets  upon  slaves  who  dared  to  mistake  his  army 
as  <he  way  to  freedom.  In  this  matter  General 
McClellan  had  a  policy,  if  the  Administration  and 
nobody  else  seemed  to  have. 

But  Congress  entered  its  protest  agai*hst  engaging 
the  army  in  the  business  of  catching  and  returning 
fugitive  slaves,  and  this  infernal  subject  was  evidently 
not  to  be  quieted  at  the  beginning  of  a  war  started 
on  its  account. 

In  May  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  who  had  so 
effectually  squelched  the  Rebellion  in  Maryland,  but 
who  had  not  done  it  in  accordance  with  General 
Scott's  very  politic  and  conciliatory  views,  was  sent 
down  to  Fortress  Monroe,  in  some  respects  the  most 
important  military  post  in  the  Nation.  In  returning 
from  his  first  warlike  excursion  from  Hampton,  after 
taking  possession  of  that  place  his  army  was  followed 
by  many  slaves,  who  had  been  deserted  by  their 
masters,  or  Avho  had  been  employed  in  the  rebel 
works,  and  these  General  Butler  at  once  declared  to 
be  "  contraband  of  war,"  and  refused  to  deliver  them 
to  rebel  owners.  This  matter,  so  easil}'^  disposed  of 
at  first  by  this  lawyer-general,  became  in  a  short  time 
a  complex  and  serious  question.  And,  recognizing 
the  lack  of  any  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Adminis- 


68  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

tration  covering  the  matter,  in  the  forms  in  wl^ch  it 
was  likely  to  appear,  on  the  30th  of  July,  1861, 
Butler  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  fully  present- 
ing the  "contraband"  question  as  it  occurred  to  him 
then,  and  as  he  believed  the  Administration  would 
have  to  see  sooner  or  later.  He  said  that  a  large 
number  of  slave  men,  women,  and  children  had  col- 
lected at  Hampton,  and  he  had  emploj^ed  the  men 
on  the  fortifications,  and  the  women  washed  and 
marketed  for  the  camp ;  that  when  Hampton  was 
abandoned,  all  these  blacks  appealed  to  him  for  pro- 
tection; and  that  nine  hundred  of  them  were  then  in 
the  camp.  He  then  asked:  What  shall  be  done  with 
them  ?  What  is  their  state  and  condition  ?  Are  they 
slaves?  Are  they  free?  Is  their  condition  that  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  or  of  property?  or  is  it  a 
mixed  relation?  He  said  their  status  under  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  was  well  known ;  but  then,  he 
asked,  what  was  the  effect  of  a  state  of  war  and  re- 
bellion on  that  status?  He  stated  that  in  adopting 
the  plan  of  treating  them  as  "contraband  of  war,"  on 
the  ground  of  being  property  to  be  used  in  aid  of  the 
Rebellion,  he  considered  the  matter  as  standing  on  a 
right  and  legal  basis. 

But  the  case  now  presented  new  aspects.  Were 
they  property?  Their  owners  had  run  away  and  de- 
serted them  to  starve,  themselves  to  engage  in  the 
Rebellion.  If  they  were  still  property,  were  they 
not  the  property  of  their  saviors,  against  whom  the 
rebellious  owners  were  at  war  ?  But  these  saviors 
had  different  views  about  the  matter,  and  would  not 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  69 

hold^them  as  property.  Then,  did  not  their  property- 
status  cease  ?  His  reasoning  led  him,  he  said,  to  re- 
gard them  as  free.  He  referred  to  the  order  in  Gen- 
eral McDowell's  army  forbidding  slaves  entering  the 
lines,  or  being  harbored  in  any  way,  and  wanted  to 
know  if  this  was  to  be  the  practice  of  all  the  armies 
for  the  war.  If  so,  there  then  would  arise  questions 
as  to  who  were  slaves,  who  were  not,  how  the  many 
difficulties  arising  would  be  decided,  and  who  would 
decide  them.  If  the  rule  was  to  be  general,  as  a 
soldier  he  Avould  enforce  it  as  best  he  could.  But 
in  a  loyal  State  he  wouLl  put  down  slave  insur- 
rection^;  in  a  rebellious  one  he  would  confiscate 
the  slaves,  and  all  else  which  the  rebel  would  use 
as  a  force  against  the  power  of  the  Government,  and 
if  it  turned  out  that  these  confiscated  slaves  went 
free,  it  would  be  a  matter  little  to  be  regretted  or 
discussed. 

On  the  8th  of  August  Mr.  Cameron  answered  this 
letter.  He  said  the  President  desired  all  existing: 
rights  of  the  States  to  be  respected;  that  the  war 
was  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  with  all  the 
rights  of  the  States  intact ;  hence  there  could  be  no 
question  as  to  these  fugitives  from  labor  in  States 
where  the  authority  of  the  Union  was  in  full  force. 
But  in  rebellious  States,  the  military  exigencies  stood 
before  the  rights  of  States  and  citizens,  if  these  rights 
were  not  wholly  forfeited  by  the  Rebellion ;  and 
that  by  the  act  of  the  session  of  Congress,  just  closed, 
the  right  of  persons  in  rebellion  to  slaves  used  in 
furthering  the  Rebellion  was  discharged. 


70  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  fourth  section  of  this  Confiscation  Act  read : — 

"Whenever  hereafter,  during  the  present  insurrection 
against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  any  person 
claimed  to  be  held  to  labor  or  service  under  the  law  of  any 
State,  shall  be  required  or  permitted  by  the  person  to  whom 
such  labor  or  service  is  claimed  to  be  due,  or  by  the  lawful 
agent  of  such  person,  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United 
States,  or  shall  be  required  or  permitted  by  the  person  to 
whom  such  labor  or  service  is  claimed  to  be  due,  or  his 
lawful  agent,  to  work  or  to  be  employed  in  or  upon  any 
fort,  navy-yard,  dock,  armory,  ship,  intrenchment,  or  in 
any  military  or  naval  service  whatsoever,  against  the  Gov- 
ernment and  lawful  authority  of  the  United  States,  then, 
and  in  every  such  case,  the  person  to  whom  such  labor  or 
service  is  claimed  to  be  due  shall  forfeit  his  claim  to  such 
labor,  any  law  of  the  State  or  of  the  United  States  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  And  whenever  thereafter  the 
person  claiming  such  labor  or  service  shall  seek  to  enforce 
his  claim,  it  shall  be  a  full  and  sufficient  answer  to  such 
claim  that  the  person  whose  service  or  labor  is  claimed 
had  been  employed  in  hostile  service  against  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of 
this  Act." 

The  Secretary  acknowledged  the  great  inconven- 
ience which  might  surround  the  case  in  determining 
between  the  loyal  and  the  disloyal,  and  concluded 
that,  on  the  whole,  the  rights  of  all  would  be  best 
subserved  by  receiving  all  "•'  contrabands  "  that  came, 
of  necessity  or  without  invitation,  and  employing 
them  as  the  circumstances  might  require,  at  the  same 
time  keeping  a  record  of  them,  to  enable  Congress  at 
the  end  of  the  war  to  compensate  the  deserving  and 
amicably   adjust   the   whole   matter.      According   to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  71 

this  timid  and  impossible  plan  General  Butler  was 
requested  to  conduct  himself,  not  allowing  any  inter- 
ference with  the  slaves  of  loyal  masters,  or  prevent- 
ing any  who  might  desire  returning  to  their  old 
homes. 

General  Wool,  who  took  command  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  a  month  or  two  afterwards  issued  an  order  re- 
quiring these  slaves  to  be  paid,  the  men  eight,  and  the 
women  four  dollars  per  month  and  fed  and  clothed, 
while  they  were  employed  by  the  Government.  This 
plan  was  soon,  for  a  time,  adopted  throughout  the 
army ;  and  to  General  Butler  the  credit  of  putting 
the  Administration  in  the  way  to  any  policy  at  all 
on  this  evil  subject  was  due.  From  his  fruitful  brain 
at  Fortress  Monroe  sprang  the  exceedingly  conven- 
ient term  "  contraband,"  which  went  into  the  general 
speech  of  the  country  as  the  conciliatory  and  humor- 
ous designation  of  the  fugitive  slave,  indeed  of  the 
whole  of  the  "peculiar  institution"  of  the  South. 
The  plan  of  employing  these  slaves,  registering  their 
names,  names  of  their  owners,  time  of  service,  and 
so  on,  was  one  of  immense  labor,  and  one  which,  after 
occupying  the  time  of  a  good-sized  army  itself,  would 
have  led  ultimately  to  inextricable  difficulties  to  the 
country.  But  all  this  ended  by  the  famous  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation  and  the  continuation  of  the 
Rebellion. 

The  war  had  scarcely  begun,  indeed,  until  a  great 
change  came  over  the  "  institution."  It  was  to  be 
readily  seen  that  a  separation  of  the  Union  was  not 
going  to  bind   the    slave  forever,  or  rear  an  impene- 


72  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

trable  wall  between  him  and  freedom.  Who  had 
any  right  now  to  expect  the  execution  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law,  and  who  had  any  right  or  disposition 
to  want  to  execute  it?  Thousands  now  flocked 
across  the  vast  Free-State  border,  and  no  record  of 
them  was  even  taken  which  would  aid  in  returning 
them  to  slavery.  Where  one  escaped  in  time  of 
loyal  peace,  hundreds  now  went,  never  to  be  returned. 
It  appears  that  from  1840  to  1850  but  one  thousand 
and  eleven  slaves  escaped  into  freedom  from  all  the 
Slave  States;  and  from  1850  to  1860,  only  eight 
hundred  and  three,  notwithstanding  the  constant 
political  turmoil  on  the  subject  of  the  abuse  of  the 
fugitive  law  in  the  North,  and  the  everlasting  cry 
from  the  South  of  the  impossibility  of  her  holding 
and  perpetuating  her  rights  (negroes)  in  the  Union. 
How  Avas  the  case  now? 

General  Butler's  name  was  so  connected  with  this 
"contraband"  question  from  the  outset  of  the  war 
almost,  that  it  would  have  lived  in  its  history  had 
he  never  lived  to  bear  the  distinction  of  "  Beast 
Butler"  at  New  Orleans.  Although  he  was  not  an 
able  and  successful  military  chief,  as  an  ingenious  and 
skillful  political  general  his  record  was  unique  and 
exceedingly  interesting,  and  from  the  day  he  entered 
Maryland  to  the  end  he  kept  the  rebels  in  mind  of 
his  power  and  enmity  to  their  purposes.  In  propor- 
tion to  their  hatred  of  him,  did  he  grow  in  the  favor 
of  his  Northern  friends. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  73 


CHAPTKR    IV. 

1861— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— PROGRESS  OF  THE  REBELS 
AT  HOME  AND  ABROAD— McCLELLAN  AT  THE  HEAD  OF 
THE  UNION  ARMY—"  ALL  QUIET  ON  THE  POTOMAC  "— 
ROSECRANS  IN  WEST  VIRGINIA— LYON  AND  FREMONT 
IN  MISSOURI— BATTLE  OF  WILSON'S  CREEK— THE  SEC- 
RETARY OF  WAR  IN  MISSOURI— THE  BODY-GUARD. 

ON  the  day  of  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter, 
Jefferson  Davis  called  the  rebel  leaders  to  as- 
semble again  at  Montgomery,  towards  the  last  of  the 
same  month.  The  insurrection  had  now,  as  far  as 
possible,  assumed  the  form  of  a  reguhirly  executed 
government.  Mr.  Davis's  message  to  the  legislative 
body  at  this  time  was  a  singular  mixture  of  artful 
misrepresentations,  but  on  the  whole  the  most  com- 
plete presentation  of  his  side  from  the  well-known 
Southern  point  of  view.  His  main  arguments  were 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  de- 
clared war  against  the  seceding  States  because  one 
of  them  had  fired  on  and  captured  Fort  Sumter ; 
that  the  seceding  States  were  only  exercising  their 
"reserved  rights;"  that  government  by  the  majori- 
ties was  a  fallacy;  and,  above  all,  the  most  foolish 
thing  ever  uttered  under  pretentious  circumstances, 
that  "All  we  ask  is  to  be  let  alone."  And  one  of 
Mr.   Davis's   biographers,    with    childish    simplicity, 


74  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

says  that  in  this  message  Mr.  Davis  actually  "es- 
tablished the  doctrine  of  secession."  That  was  a 
doctrine  which  could  only  be  established  by  the 
sword  and  bayonet  and  not  by  the  power  of  the  tongue, 
and  nobody  believed  otherwise  in  America  or  Europe 
except  the  rebels  in  the-  South  and  their  sympathizers 
wherever  they  were  found.  That  many  of  them  held 
to  the  doctrine  as  a  mere  pretense,  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  Those  who  did  entertain  it,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, abandoned  it,  and  no  false  doctrine  was  ever 
more  completely  and  eternally  annihilated  than  was 
this  in  the  downfall  of  the  Rebellion.  The  puerility 
with  which  Jefferson  Davis  yet  seems  to  hold  to  it 
is  pitiable  in  the  extreme. 

On  the  21st  of  May  the  "Congress"  decided  that 
the  next  session  of  that  body  should  be  held  in 
Richmond,  Virginia,  beginning  on  the  20th  of  the 
following  month. 

This  removal  of  the  government  seat  was  at  first 
opposed  by  Mr.  Davis,  as  it  was  also  by  many  of  the 
Gulf-State  leaders.  But  the  Virginia  authorities  had 
made  this  removal  a  condition  of  the  secession  of 
that  State,  and  there  was  no  apparent  alternative. 
In  the  Union,  Virginia  was  only  satisfied  in  being 
first,  and  well  the  Cotton  State  kings  knew  that  she 
would  expect  to  take  this  place  in  the  "new  govern- 
ment." In  the  Gulf  States,  at  least,  there  was, 
probably,  no  thought  that  Richmond  should  remain 
tlie  permanent  seat  of  the  government,  if  there  ever 
should  be  one;  and  the  capture  of  Richmond  without 
the  defeat   and    destruction  of  a   great   rebel   army 


ABE  AH  AM  LINCOLN.  75 

would  have  been  an  event  of  no  great  political  or 
military  significance  at  any  time  during  the  war. 

Not  until  the  22d  of  February,  1862,  was  Mr. 
Davis  inaugurated  as  permanent  chief  of  the  Re- 
bellion, the  permanent  "  Congress,"  as  it  was  termed, 
having  assembled  the  first  time  four  days  previously. 

The  opponents  of  the  location  of  the  seat  of  gov- 
ernment at  Richmond  were  not,  perhaps,*justified  in 
any  of  their  objections  to  the  removal  from  Mont- 
gomery, and  doubtlessly  saw  afterwards  that  they 
had  been  unwise.  That  Mr.  Jefl'erson  Davis  did  so 
is  quite  certain.  The  rebel  capital  was  throughout 
the  war  a  matter  of  little  or  no  importance  only  so 
far  as  it  could  be  of  the  greatest  possible  advantage 
to  the  rebels  themselves  in  conducting  their  military 
operations.  Military  success  was  "everything"  with 
them.  There  could  have  been  little  moral  or  polit- 
ical loss  to  them  in  the  loss  of  anything  but  victory 
in  battle.  The  selection  of  Richmond  as  the  capital 
aided  materially  in  securing  the  earnest  co-operation 
of  a  people  who  desired,  if  not  deserved  also,  to  be 
the  first  defenders  and  sufferers  in  a  bad  cause,  and 
removed  the  power  back  of  the  army  to  the  imme- 
diate neighborhood  of  the  lending  acts  in  the  drania. 
The  location  of  their  capital  at  Richmond  must  doubt- 
less be  placed  among  the  wise  acts  of  the  rebel 
leaders. 

The  early  enthusiasm  of  the  South  was  at  this 
period  somewhat  broken  by  the  unfavorable  progress 
of  events  during  the  fall  and  winter,  to  some  extent, 
as  well  as  by  a  very  wide-spread  dissatisfaction  with 


76  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  conduct  of  the  managers  at  Richmond  But  the 
"  Congress"  held  its  sessions  mainly  in  secret,  and  the 
reins  were  constantly  tightened  in  the  hands  of  the 
leaders.  Until  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  the  South 
still  hoped,  against  the  most  open  dictates  of  common 
sense,  to  be  let  alone. 

"Jefferson  Davis  signed  the  order  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  Fort  Sumter,  but  he  did  not  thereby  invoke 
the  calamity  of  war.  That  act  was  simply  the 
patriot's  defiance  to  the  menace  of  tyranny."  Were 
not  the  history  of  the  Rebellion  as  written  by  its 
defenders  and  actors  filled  with  such  wordy  nonsense, 
this  singular  expression  from  one  of  Mr.  Davis's 
biographers  might  be  given  the  place  of  honor  in  all 
the  annals  of  stupidity.  But  the  writer  of  plain 
matter-of-fact  history  can  well  afford  to  "  let  alone  " 
these  mad  apologists  of  the  "  Lost  Cause." 

As  the  reins  were  tighter  drawn  at  Richmond  the 
dream  of  "  State  sovereignty "  faded  away.  To 
prove  and  maintain  secession  became  a  stupendous 
undertaking,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  people  were 
disappointed.  But  those  who  had  begun  the  work 
were  not  to  be  turned  by  complaints.  A  conscription 
law  was  now  enacted,  taking  all  men  not  disabled  be- 
tween the  ages  of  eighteen  and  thirty-five.  And  so 
the  States  were  stripped,  and  the  will  of  the  few  or 
the  one  at  Richmond  was  found  to  be  supreme.  Still 
another  and  more  sweeping  conscription  act  followed, 
and  compulsion  took  the  place  of  volunteer  enthusi- 
asm. The  rebel  "  Congress  "  kept  pace  with  the  will  of 
the  executive,  and  as  the  measures  of  the  National 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  77 

Government  became  more  galling,  the  legislative 
body,  called  "  the  Congress,"  declared  its  disposition 
to  sanction  any  retaliatory  steps,  however  severe, 
which  the  "  president "  might  adopt.  The  severe 
measures  put  in  practice  were  not  alone  directed 
toward  the  people  on  the  north  side  of  the  slave-line. 
All  persons  at  home  even  suspected  of  being  luke- 
warm in  the  cause  were  summarily  handled.  With 
all  the  pretensions  of  the  Southern  politicians  as  to 
State  and  personal  liberty,  there  was  no  such  thing 
in  the  South.  There  never  had  been.  The  thoughts 
of  men  were  as  offensive  as  their  deeds,  if  they  were 
never  expressed.  For  years  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  Rebellion  there  was  no  freedom  in  the  South 
except  in  the  adoration  and  blessing  of  the  cause  of 
slavery.  Silent  submission  then  and  during  the  war 
was  no  security  against  personal  abuse. 

Henry  S.  Foote,  in  writing  of  the  imprisonment 
of  political  and  suspected  persons,  says  : — 

"As  chairman  of  a  special  committee  of  the  Con- 
federate Congress,  organized  at  my  own  motion  for  the 
purpose  of  inquiring  into  cases  of  illegal  imprisonment,  I 
obtained  from  the  superintendent  of  the  prison-house  in 
Richmond,  under  the  official  sanction  of  the  Department 
of  War  itself,  a  griui  and  shocking  catalogue  of  several 
hundred  persons  then  in  confinement  therein,  not  one  of 
whom  was  charged  with  anything  but  suspected  infidelity, 
and  this,  too,  not  upon  oath  in  a  single  instance.  Before 
I  could  take  proper  steps  to  procure  the  discharge  of  these 
unhappy  men,  the  second  suspension  of  the  writ  of  liberty 
occurred,  and  I  presume  that  such  of  them  as  did  not  die 
in  jail,  remained  there  until  the  fall  of  Richmond." 


78  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  same  writer,  who  had  as  good  grounds  on 
which  to  justify  himself  for  the  part  he  took  in  fur- 
thering or  impeding  the  rebel  cause,  as  any  other 
man,  perhaps,  says  : — 

"  The  Confiscation  Act  was  opposed  from  the  first  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  by  a  considerable  number, 
inckuling  myself,  alike  upon  the  ground  of  its  unconsti- 
tutionaHty,  injustice,  and  impoHcy.  This  was  carried  also 
in  secret  session,  under  the  abominable  ten-minutes  rule, 
which  rule  I  labored  in  vain,  session  after  session,  to  get 
repealed,  but  which  was  retained  by  the  votes  of  indi- 
viduals justly  apprehensive  of  the  censures  of  an  outraged 
constituency,  should  all  the  dark  machinations  which  had 
their  origin  in  this  disreputable  conclave  be  ever  made 
known  through  the  public  journals.  The  special  sup- 
porters of  Mr,  Davis  were  always  ready  to  go  into  secret 
session — a  thing  very  easy  to  be  eifected,  since  a  single 
member  moving  for  it  had  it  in  his  power  to  bring  about 
the  immediate  closing  of  the  doors. 

"At  the  very  last  session  of  the  Confederate  Congress 
the  Confiscation  Law  was  made  still  more  cruel  and 
onerous,  at  the  instance  of  individuals  who  have  since 
shown  themselves  more  than  willing  to  save  their  own 
beloved  estates  from  the  forfeiture  to  which  they  were 
formerly  so  ferociously  inclined  to  subject  others  who 
chanced  to  differ  from  them  conscientiously,  both  in  refer- 
ence to  the  feasibility  and  propriety  of  the  scheme  of 
revolution.  I  do  not  know  when  my  feelings  were  more 
outraged  than  they  were  only  a  few  weeks  anterior  to  the 
vacation  of  my  seat  in  the  Confederate  Congress,  by  the 
heartless  and  unmanly  attempt  to  confiscate  the  estates  of 
all  absentees,  unless  they  had  gone,  or  should  thereafter 
go  abroad  with  the  consent  of  the  Government  officials. 
This  was  intended  mainly  to  operate  upon  Dr.  Duncan,  of 
New   York,   and    others    of   that    class,    who    had    been 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  79 

sojourning  for  several  years  before  the  beginning  of  the 
war  outside  of  the  Confederate  States,  and  who,  it  was 
known,  had  very  large  possessions  in  said  States.  It  was 
confessedly  designed,  likewise,  to  reach  the  estates  of 
certain  ladies  of  considerable  property  who  had  thought 
proper  to  go  to  New  York,  to  Philadelphia,  or  even 
beyond  the  ocean,  for  the  purpose  either  of  avoiding  the 
horrors  of  internecine  strife,  or  for  the  suitable  education 
of  their  infant  children.  In  looking  back  to  the  past,  I 
confess  that  I  am  yet  full  of  surprise  and  indignation  that 
persons  professing  to  be  civilized  men  and  Christians 
should  have  dared  to  attempt  the  perpetration  of  this 
double-damned  iniquity. 

"  It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Davis  and  his  cabinet 
were  originally  opposed  to  the  Conscription  Law.  They 
were  notoriously  dragooned  by  a  portion  of  the  Con- 
federate press  into  a  recommendation  of  its  adoption. 
But  when  this  rank,  centralizing  measure  had  been  once 
put  in  operation,  these  gentlemen  were  not  slow  in  per- 
ceiving how,  by  means  of  its  rigid  enforcement,  and  the 
general  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  they 
would  be  able  to  put  down  all  opposition  to  their  scheme 
of  despotic  domination.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  even 
in  the  message  of  Mr.  Davis,  which  first  recommended 
to  the  Confederate  Congress  a  resort  to  this  anti-Republi- 
can expedient,  he  declared  that  there  had  been  no  abate- 
ment whatever  of  the  volunteering  spirit,  which  still,  he 
said,  rather  needed  repression  than  stimulation.  How 
strange  must  it  not  now  seem  to  all  reasonable  men,  that  in 
a  war  avowedly  commenced  by  the  people  of  the  South  for 
their  own  safety  exclusively,  it  should  have  been  deemed 
allowable,  even  had  the  volunteering  spirit  then  altogether 
disappeared,  to  force  the  same  people,  under  the  most 
harsh  and  dishonoring  penalties,  to  continue  the  war 
after  they  should  have  themselves  grown  weary  of  its 
prosecution  ! 


80  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"  It   is  a  fact  worthy   of  notice,    that   nearly  all  the 
legislative  enactments  of  the  Confederate  Congress  most 
deleterious  in  their  operation  upon  State  Eights  and  popu- 
lar freedom  originated  with  ultra  State-Rights   men,  and 
ultra  Democrats  in  profession.     One  of  the  most  maniacal 
and  astounding  propositions  brought  forward  in  that  unfor- 
tunate body  was  the  one  introduced  about  eighteen  months 
ago  by  Mr.  Barksdale,  of  Mississippi,  which  was  a  bill  to 
establish  martial  law  generally  throughout  the  Confederate 
States.     The  peculiar  relations  existing  between  this  indi- 
vidual and  Mr.  Davis  fully  justified  the  presumption  that 
this  latter  personage  had  been  duly  consulted  before  the 
bringing  into  the  legislative  hall  this  worse  than  political 
hydra.     Did  the  Mountain  party  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion ever  manifest  more  ferocity  than  was  indicated  in  this 
movement?     Posterity  will  hardly  believe  the  statement, 
and   yet  is  it   absolutely   true  that  the  ultra  secessionists, 
who    professed    to    have    brought   on   the  Avar   chiefly   to 
maintain  the  right  of  separate  State  secession,  were  the 
first  to  deny  the  existence  of  any  such  right  when  certain 
movements  were   understood   to  be  in  progress  in  North 
Carolina   looking    to    peaceful    secession    from    the    Con- 
federate States  themselves ;  and  these  persons  urged  most 
vehemently  the  putting  the  whole  country  under  military 
law,   in    order  to  counteract   all   such   attempts  at  with- ' 
drawal.      I  well  remember  that  certain  fiery  zealots  from 
the  'Old  North  State'  came  to  Richmond  about  two  years 
ago,  and  openly  urged   the  sending  of  a  military  force  at 
once  into  that  region,  in  order  to  suppress  all  eiforts  at 
counter-revolution.     This  course   of  proceeding  was  even 
urged    upon    me.     What   response    I    made   to   these  se- 
cession-anti-secession worthies  I  shall  leave  to   others  to 
conjecture." 

Mr.  Pollard,  in  his  "  First  Year  of  the  War,"  de- 
clares that  there  was  little  opposition  to  the  will  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  81 

m 

Mr.  Davis.  As  the  necessities  of  the  Rebellion  be- 
came more  pressing  the  vindictive  spirit  was  strength- 
ened. No  better  instance  of  this  fact  probably  is  to 
be  gathered  from  the  rebel  records  than  the  follow- 
ing statement  from  Mr.  Pollard's  "  Third  Year  of  the 
War:"  "  The  Libby  Prison  was  undermined,  s.everal 
tons  of  powder  put  under  it,  and  the  threat  made 
that,  if  any  demonstration  on  Richmon(1,  such  as 
Dahlgren's,  wns  ever  to  occur  again,  the  awful  crime, 
the  appalling  barbarity,  would  be  committed  of  blow- 
ing into  eternity  the  helpless  men  confined  in  a  Con- 
federate prison." 

The  financial  weakness  of  the  Rebellion  was  felt 
from  the  outset,  and  on  any  other  supposition  than 
that  of  immediate  success  the  case  could  only  have 
been  appalling  to  earnest  and  sensible  men.  But 
with  all  the  so-called  single-henrtedness  and  enthusi- 
asm of  the  people,  there  was  not  wanting  a  numer- 
ous class  of  persons,  under  the  patronage  of  the  "  Con- 
gress "  and  the  executive,  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
the  necessities  of  a  people  who  were,  willing  or  un- 
willing, compelled  to  devote  themselves  and  all  they 
had  to  a  cause  in  which  there  never  was  any  chance 
of  success.  Speculation  seemed  to  flourish  while 
famine  and  nakedness  stood  before  the  country. 

One  of  the  most  strange  and  unparalleled  features 
of  the  case  was  the  utterly  wonderful  prices  at  which 
the  very  necessities  of  life  were  sold.  And  as  the 
value  of  a  purely  foundationless  and  fictitious  cur- 
rency depreciated,  the  prices  became  fabulous.  But 
while  there  were  many  avaricious  speculators  on  the 

6-Q 


82  »         LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

recklessness  and  credulity,  or  connivance, of  the  rebel- 
authorities,  and  who  were  deserving  of  all  the  censure 
they  got,  and  who  corresponded  to  a  very  extensive 
cLiss  of  the  same  kind  of  people  in  the  North  who 
would  have  doubled  the  enormous  debt  of  the 
country,  if  by  doing  so  they  could  have  secured  their 
own  fortunes,  the  c;ise  of  merchants  and  even  army 
sutlers  in  the  South  was  not  so  bad,  and  has  pallia- 
tion enough  for  conscience'  sake.  The  case  of  the 
trader  was,  indeed,  most  pitiable.  What  did  it 
matter  that  a  pair  of  shoes,  a  pound  of  tobacco  or 
some  other  filth,  brought  him  its  weight  in  "  Confed- 
erate" currency?  A  pound  of  that  currency  was  as 
valuable  as  a  ton.  The  more  any  man  got  the  poorer 
he  became,  unless  he  stole  it.  If  the  trader  parted 
with  a  pound  of  his  salt,  a  paper  of  pins,  or  a  horse, 
he  was  poorer  for  it,  as  one  of  these  things  was 
worth  more  than  all  the  currency  or  all  the  credit  of 
the  "  Confederacy."  The  faith  of  these  men  who 
put  their  property,  even  their  land,  everytliing  but 
their  negroes,  into  "  Confederate  money  "  was  bound- 
less and  admirable;  but,  like  many  of  the  faiths  of 
men,  it  lost  its  beauty  by  the  unreasonableness  or 
the  utter  baselessness  of  its  foundation. 

One  of  the  first  steps  of  Mr.  Davis's  government 
was  to  attempt  to  make  tliis  currency  good,  and  es- 
tablish diplomatic  respectability  in  Europe.  Commis- 
sioners were  sent  over  there  to  negotiate  to  this  end. 
And  in  this  undertaking  they  were  not  wholly  un- 
successful. From  the  very  dawn  of  secession  both 
England   and    France   gave   their  sympathy   to    the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  83 

rebel  cause,  and  although  nothing  more  was  done  by 
the  governments  of  those  countries  than  to  recognize 
the  beHigerent  rights  of  the  rebel  States  (a  step  rest- 
ing on  principles  as  false  as  they  were  mischievous), 
the  attitude,  to  a  great  extent,  assumed  by  the  people 
of  England  especially,  prolonged  the  Rebellion,  as 
may  be  seen  in  a  future  chapter. 

Previous  to  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  the  rebel  ex- 
ecutive had  been  authorized  to  accept  from  the  States 
in  the  Rebellion  such  volunteers  as  he  deemed  neces- 
sary^, and  also  empowered  to  call  out  one  hundred 
thousand  militia.  Early  in  August  he  Avas  again 
authorized  to  make  a,  call  on  the  militia,  this  time 
for  a  force  of  four  hundred  thousand  men.  Not  until 
early  the  following  spring  was  the  first  conscription 
promulgated.  The  work  of  organizing  this  force  be- 
gan effectively  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Fort 
Sumter,  and  with  great  rapidity  the  whole  border  line 
was  occupied  in  what  were  supposed  to  be  the  main 
strategic  points.  Magruder  with  a  considerable  force 
was  posted  near  Fortress  Monroe ;  Beauregard  at 
Manassas  Junction,  thirty-five  miles  from  Washing- 
ton ;  Joseph  E,  Johnston  at  Harper's  Ferrj^ ;  Leon- 
idas  Polk  on  the  Mississippi ;  and  Sterling  Price  and 
Ben  McCuUoch  in  Missouri.  But  the  campaign  of 
the  fall  of  1861  was,  in  the  main,  not  favorable  to 
the  rebel  cause,  and  the  cry  of  discontent  was  loud 
throughout  the  South ;  while  from  Washington  went 
constantly  the  unwelcome  report  that  all  was  quiet 
on  the  Potomac. 

The  battle  of  Bull  Run  was  fought  on  the  Govern- 


84  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ment  side  by  the  three  months'  militia,  and  a  few 
hundred  regular  soldiers,  and  soon  after  this  dis- 
astrous engagement  most  of  these  men  returned  to 
their  homes  ;  and  under  the  recent  acts  of' Congress 
the  formation  of  a  new  and  formidable  army  now 
began.  . 

Many  brave  men  on  both  sides  had  fallen  in  the 
first  great  battle  of  the  war;  and  although  there 
was,  perhaps,  little  in  the  conflict  at  Bull  Run  to  de- 
velop the  character  which  the  euiergency  needed  in 
the  army,  yet  quite  a  number  of  men  who  fought 
there  in  subordinate  places,  subsequently  rose  to  de- 
served distinction  as  soldiers.  Among  these  may  be 
especially  named  W.  T.  Sherman  and  T.  J.  Jackson 
("  Stonewall "  Jackson).  The  leading  generals  in 
this  engagement  were  not  so  fortunate.  G.  T.  Beaure- 
gard, the  second  in  command  on  the  rebel  side,  re- 
ceived the  greater  part  of  the  praise  in  the  South ; 
but  himself  and  Johnston,  the  responsible  general, 
both  soon  fell  into  an  endless  quarrel  with  Davis, 
and  the  people  became  dissatisfied  when  they  came 
to  sum  up  the  results,  on  account  of  the  little  which 
had  been  done  by  these  men  when,  it  was  claimed, 
their  opportunity  was  so  good.  However  General 
McDowell's  case  stood,  he  was  not  deemed  satisfac- 
tory at  the  head  of  (he  army  in  the  field  in  the 
present  state  of  affairs.  If  the  judgment  of  the 
country  was  not  against  him,  it  was  not  favorable  to 
him,  and  this  the  Administration  could  not  overlook, 
if  it  had  desired  to  do  so. 

Among  all  the  unknown  and  untried  the  Admin- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  85 

istration  and  the  country  fixed  upon  George  Briiiton 
McClellan  as  the  coming  man.  His  ringing,  dashing 
reports  from  West  Virginia  were  captivating  and  il- 
lusive, and  when  he  announced,  quite  prematurely, 
that  he  had  broken  up  the  Rebellion  there,  it  was 
believed  and  hoped  at  Washington  that  he  wjis  the 
man  to  give  enthusiam  to  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
and  lead  the  army,  gathering  on  the  Potomac,  to  de- 
cisive victory.  Although  he  was  at  the  head  of 
military  affairs  in  West  Virginia,  the  laurels  he  gained 
properly  belonged  to  other  persons.  But  it  was  sup- 
posed that  there  were  good  and  sufficient  grounds 
upon  which  to  rest  a  very  strong  faith  in  liis  fitness. 
By  such  slender  threads  are  the  fortunes  of  men 
suspended  in  uncertain  times.  Future  events  too 
well  exposed  the  weakness  of  the  foundation  on 
which  the  country  reposed  its  confidence  and  hopes 
in  General  McClellan.  The  oblivion  and  rust  of  time 
can  never  so  obscure  the  truth  of  history  as  to  make 
it  possible  to  build  for  him  a  reputation  he  did  not 
hold  among  the  majority  of  his  countrymen,  w^hen, 
after  a  wonderfully  patient  and  long  test,  he  was, 
from  sheer  necessity,  removed  from  his  responsible 
and  fruitless  position  as  General  of  the  army.  As 
a  systematic  and  endless  organizer  he  was  not  ex- 
celled, perhaps,  and  in  times  of  peace  in  a  country 
sustaining  a  vast  standing  army,  he  w^ould  have  been 
a  superb  soldier.  His  want  of  ability  to  lead  a  vast 
army  to  conquest,  against  a  brave  and  ;ible  foe,  was 
supplemented  by  political  views  unsuited  to  such  a 
task  or  such  an  emergency. 


86  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

When  General  McClellan  took  command  on  the 
25th  of  July,  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run,  he  found  an  armed  multitude  nearly  fifty  thou- 
sand strong  collected  around  Washington,  but  to  the 
trained  soldier  it  appeared  little  like  an  army.  And 
it  was  found  that  poor  old  General  Scott  and  his  aids 
had  done  little  towards  preparing  defensive  works  to 
secure  the  National  Capital  against  the  shot  and  shell 
of  the  enemy.  Patriotic  heat  had  yet  made  up  for 
all  deficiencies ;  the  stern  realities  of  the  war  were 
approached  with  caution  and  reluctance. 

When  the  new  Administration  began  its  task  it 
was  found  that  the  regular  army  contained  but  little 
over  sixteen  thousand  men,  and  most  of  these  had 
been  dispersed  throughout  the  Indian  border,  render- 
ing them  unavailable  on  any  crisis  in  national  affairs. 
The  conspirators,  during  the  last  Administration,  had 
taken  every  other  step  possible  to  render  the  Govern- 
ment powerless  at  the  critical  moment  when  the  work 
of  secession  should  begin.  So  the  organization  and 
equipment  of  the  army  became  a  work  on  original 
materials  from  the  ground  up.  But  McClellan  set 
out -with  great  spirit;  every  facility  was  afforded 
him;  he  was  unstinted;  the  Administration  lavished 
means  apon  him  ;  he  acted  splendidly ;  the  soldiers 
were  pleased;  the  country  was  full  of  hope;-  and  by 
the  last  of  October  an  army  of  nearly  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  tolerably  thoroughly  equijjped 
soldiers  under  the  immediate  command  of  General 
McClellan  was  ready  for  the  field.  By  the  first  day 
of  March,  1862,  it  had  swelled  to  nearly  seventy-five 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  87 

thousand  more,  including,  at  that  time,  the  troops  in 
MnryLind  and  Delaware  and  up  and  down  the  Poto- 
mac, and  this  estimate  covered  all  officers  and  men, 
and  all  arms  of  "  the  service."  After  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run  there  were  about  thirty  field-guns  belonging  to 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  while  on  the  first  day  of 
March,  1862,  the  whole  artillery  force  was  over  five 
hundred  guns,  over  twelve  thousand  men,  and  eleven 
thousand  horses.  Long  before  this  date,  it  began  to 
be  suspected  throughout  the  country  that,  while  Mc- 
Clellan  had  shown  much  skill  and  coolness  in  organiz- 
ing this  splendid  army  on  which  every  expense  had 
been  lavished,  still  there  was  something  about  him 
that  rendered  him  unable  to  command  it  successfully 
in  active  war. 

Early  in  the  fall  a  universal  cry  arose  for  the 
movement  of  this  grand  force,  and  General  McClellan 
himself  said  this  should  not  be  delayed  longer  than 
the  25th  of  November.  But  it  was  delayed.  One 
thing  or  another  seemed  to  be  in  the  way.  The 
President  became  impatient,  and  pressed  the  matter ; 
but  still  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  remained  quiet. 
Beyond  a  superb  and  unwieldy  establishment  nobody 
could  detect  that  General  McClellan  had  any  plan, 
or  knew  what  should  be  done.  And  so  the  winter 
passed,  and  the  people  came  to  expect  nothing  more 
than  what  the  telegraph  daily  sent  over  the  country : 
"All  quiet  on  the  Potomac." 

On  the  last  day  of  October,  General  Scott,  bur- 
dened with  disease  and  age,  and  feeling  his  inade- 
quacy to  a  just   and    successful   performance  of  the 


88  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

onerous  duties  of  General-in-chief,of  the  armies,  sent 
his  resignation  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  Pres- 
ident, of  course,  accepted  it,  and  on  the  following  day 
put  McClellan  in  his  place.  On  the  same  day  the 
General  issued  his  order  announcing  that  he  had 
assumed  command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Union. 
While  this  sudden  advance  in  position  seemed  for  a 
time  to  widen  his  views,  and  check  his  disposition 
to  strip  and  neglect  the  armies  in  the  West  for  the 
sake  of  that  under  his  immediate  direction,  it 
appeared  to  render  him  still  more  cautious  and 
"unready." 

In  the  meantime  General  John  Charles  Fremont 
had  been  put  at  the  head  of  the  Department  of  the 
West;  Niithaniel  P.  Banks  had  taken  Patterson's 
place;  Williams  S.  Roseorans  succeeded  McClellan 
in  West  Virginia;  John  A.  Dix  was  in  command  at 
Baltimore ;  and  General  Wool  had  relieved  Ben  But- 
ler iit  Fortress  Monroe.  And  while  the  superbly 
appointed  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  becoming  of  un- 
manageable proportions  in  the  hands  of  its  organizer, 
instead  of  being  led  against  the  rebels  towards  the 
close  of  September  or  October,  it  is  proper  to  follow 
briefly  the  military  events  in  these  less  important 
but  more  stirring  fields. 

In  West  Virginia  the  rebels  were,  in  the  main, 
unsuccessful.  After  the  death  of  General  Robert  S, 
Garnett,  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and  a  fine  officer, 
the  command  of  affairs  in  that  region  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Henry  A.  Wise  and  John  B.  Floyd,  men 
of  great  pretensions  and  little  military  ability,  who, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  89 

appearing  to  have  iheir  own  glory  under  considera- 
tion more  than  that  of  the  cause  they  were  support- 
ing, fell  to  quarreling,  and  weakened  iind  divided  the 
small  force  the  rebel  managers  were  able  to  send  into 
that  field,  "  neither  being  disposed  to  act  a  part  sub- 
ordinate to  the  other.  It  was  impossible,  under  such 
circumstances,  to  secure  harmonious  action  or  united 
and  spirited  effort  to  resist  the  enemy." 

From  the  outset  the  rebel  cause  had  appeared 
hopeless  in  West  Virginia,  a  loyal  mountain  region, 
where  slavery  had  few  devotees,  but  it  was  not  to  be 
given  up  without  further  effort.  Soon  after  the  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  Robert  E.  Lee,  who,  after  the  removal 
of  the  rebel  government  to  Richmond,  seemed  to  be 
without  employment,  was  sent  over  the  Alleghany 
to  take  the  direction  of  affairs.  At  Valley  Mountain 
he  joined  General  W.  W.  Loring,  who  was  in  front 
of  the  Federal  forces  under  General  Reynolds  in  Ty- 
gart  Valley  and  about  Cheat  Mountain.  After  some 
delay,  he  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  surprise 
and  defeat  the  Union  force  on  the  morning  of  the 
12th  of  September.  He  now  turned  his  attention  to 
Floyd  nnd  Wise,  farther  to  the  south,  in  the  valley 
of  the  Great  Kanawha,  who  were  confronting  Rose- 
crans  in  the  neighborhood  of  Big  Sewell  Mountain. 
He  found  Floyd  at  Meadow  Bluff,  and  Wise  a  few 
miles  off,  at  Little *Se well  Mountain,  a  strong  position, 
which  he  had  named  Camp  Defiance,  partly,  perhaps, 
because  he  had  taken  it  in  defiance  of  Floyd's  orders 
to  the  contrary.  Lee,  seeing  the  advantage  of  Wise's 
position,  ordered  Floyd  up,  but  had  some  difficulty  in 


90  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

preventing  the  forces  of  these  distinguished  military 
geniuses  from  fighting  among  themselves  over  tlie 
merits  of  their  leaders.  Wise  was  soon  called  to 
Richmond,  and  matters  took  a  better  shape.  A  great 
part  of  Loring's  division  having  joined  him,  Lee's 
effective  force  was  now  over  ten  thousand  men. 
Rosecrans,  however,  who  was  aware  of  the  change  in 
the  rebel  army  before  him,  having  only  between  eight 
and  nine  thousand  men  himself,  and  having  greatly 
exaggerated  views  as  to  the  size  of  Lee's  combined 
force,  fell  back  to  the  Gauley  River,  without  pursuit. 
And  here  the  campaign  virtually  ended  for  the  winter, 
West  Virginia,  to  a  great  extent,  remaining  undisturbed 
throughout  the  war.  There  was  little  sympathy  with 
the  rebel  cause  in  this  part  of  Virginia,  and  the  rebel 
army  was  at  the  disadvantage  of  operating  in  an 
enemy's  country. 

Lee  returned  to  Richmond,  and  the  cry  at  once 
arose  against  him  throughout  the  South  for  his  utter 
failure  in  West  Virginia.  Nobody  regretted  the  fail- 
ure more  than  Lee  did  himself,  and,  perhaps,  nobody 
deserved  censure  less.  It  was  greatly  to  the  interest 
of  the  Rebellion  at  a  later  date,  and  to  the  credit  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  that  he  knew  Lee  better  and  judged 
him  more  correctly  than  the  people  were  able  to  do. 

On  the  25th  of  July,  General  Fremont  took  com- 
mand of  the  Department  of  the  West,  at  St.  Louis, 
and,  although  it  was  considered  that  he  had  been 
culpably  tardy  and  indifferent,  under  the  pressing 
demands  of  the  Department,  he  stood  very  high  with 
the  Unionists  of  Missouri,  and  was  received  with  great 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  91 

kindness.  It  was  hoped  that  under  him  the  Admin- 
istration would  sanction  the  energetic  measures  it 
appeared  unwilling  to  do  under  Lyon.  Notwith- 
standing the  war  had  now  begun  in  earnest,  General 
Fremont  soon  stepped  far  beyond  the  expectations 
of  the  authorities  at  Washington,  in  some  respects, 
and  not  a  few  of  the  loyal  men  of  Missouri  fell  into 
the  belief  that  the  Jippuiiitment  of  Fremont  had  been 
a  calamity  to  the  State  and  the  cause.  On  the  3d 
of  July,  after  some  unavoidable  delay,  after  driving 
Governor  Jackson  and  his  followers  from  the  Missouri 
River,  Lyon  set  out  across  the  country  with  his  little 
army  toward  Springfield,  which  he  reached  in  ten 
days.  He  had  previously  ordered  Sweeney,  who 
was  acting  as  a  Brigadier-General,  to  move  from  St. 
Louis  with  all  his  available  force  to  the  same  point. 
Sweeney's  advance  pushed  on  rapidly,  and  by  the  1st 
of  July  Colonel  Franz  Sigel  was  at  Neosho,  near  the 
extreme  south-western  part  of  the  State.  Sweeney 
having  arrived  at  Springfield,  and  fearing  that  his 
divided  force  woukl  not  be  able  to  cope  with  that  of 
the  rebels  and  their  Indian  allies  gathering  on  the 
Arkansas  border,  ordered  Sigel  back.  But  Sigel  was 
anxious  to  have  a  fight,  and,  although  disposed  to 
obey  the  order,  he  chose  to  do  it  by  marching  around 
by  Carthage,  on  the  Neosho  River,  where  he  met  the 
rebels,  and,  in  an  engagement  of  some  spirit,  was 
worsted. 

Lyon  now  began  a  struggle  with  the  authorities 
at  Washington,  which  he  continued  with  General 
Fremont  after  he  took  charge  of  the  Department,  for 


92  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

supplies,  for  cavalry,  for  other  re-enforcements,  and 
transportation.     All    of   this    amounted  to  but  little, 
however,  and  as  Lyon  saw  the  rebels  gathering  with 
great  strength  on   the   south,  he   began  to  feel  that 
fortune  was  against  him,  and  that  the  only  alterna- 
tive was  retreat   or  fight   under  hopeless  odds.     On 
the  morning  of  the   9th    of  August   he  wrote  quite 
despondently  for  the  last  time  to  Genend  Fremont, 
saying  that  his  position  had  become  very  embarrass- 
ing, with  the   force    of  the    enemy   daily  increasing 
around  him,  and  intimating  that  even  retreat  might 
be  impossible.     He  now  gathered  most  of  his  officers 
around  him,  and  the  questions  of  retreating  and  fight- 
ing were  fully  discussed,  with  a  unanimous  decision 
in  favor  of  falling  back  to  Rolla.    Orders  were  accord- 
ingly given  to  pack  up,  but  during  the  day  Sweeney 
and  others,  who  had  not  been  in  the  council,  threw 
their  influence  against  this  course,  and  the  result  was 
that  with  over  five  thousand  troops,  nearly  all  of  his 
force  at  Springfield,  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day 
Lyon  turned  his  fiice  toward  the  rebels,  and  marched 
to  give  them  battle  in  the  neighborhood  of  Wilson's 
Creek.     Lyon  was  fully  aware  that  Price  had  been 
joined  by  Ben  McCulloch,  and  had  every  reason   to 
believe  that  the  force  against  him  w^as  at  least  two 
or  three  times  the  size  of  his  own  little  army.     Still, 
there  was  a  kind  of  fate,  he  fancied,  driving  him  to 
this  conflict,  in  which  he  would  himself  fall. 

At  five  o'clock  on  the  following  morning,  the 
10th,  the  battle  began  by  Sigel  striking  the  rebels 
in  surprise  on  their  right,  and   routing   them.     But 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  93 

his  men  were  not  trained  to  the  proper  use  of  such 
deceptive  good  fortune,  and  while  turning  their 
attention  to  the  booty  the  rebels  fell  upon  them  and 
whipped  them,  and  utterly  broke  up  the  commjind. 
Sigel  himself,  w^ithout  knowing  the  fate  of  Lyon, 
sought  safety  and  repose  at  Springfield.  In  the 
meantime  Lyon  had  engaged  the  rebels  with  his 
main  force  under  his  own  direction,  and  before 
twelve  o'clock  he  had  possession  of  the  field,  and 
the  battle  was  over.  But  poor,  brave,  patriotic 
Lyon's  presentiment  as  to  his  own  fate  had  been 
fulfilled.  He  had  been  everywhere  exposed  in  the 
heat  of  the  conflict,  and  was  fighting  on  foot  to 
avoid  the  rebel  sharp-shooters.  But  bringing  up  his 
small  reserve  for  the  last  onset,  although  then  se- 
verely wounded,  when  he  heard  the  cry  along  the 
line,  "  Who  will  lead  us  ?"  he  mounted  a  horse,  and 
waving  his  hand,  shouted  :  "  I  will  lead  you ;  on- 
ward, brave  boys  of  Iowa !"  His  word  and  presence 
were  enough,  but  this  was  his  last  act.  A  ball 
pierced  his  heart,  and  in  a  moment  "  life's  fitful 
dream  was  o'er." 

His  death  was  a  national  misfortune.  His  place 
could  not  be  filled.  There  were  no  more  Lyons. 
Had  he  lived  to  the  end  of  the  Rebellion  his  name 
would  have  stood  among  those  of  the  brave  who  had 
served  their  country  best.  Among  the  rebels  Stone- 
wall Jackson,  while  being  in  some  respects,  perhaps, 
a  superior  man,  would  instinctively  be  placed  by 
the  side  of  Lyon,  who,  however,  excelled  Jackson  as 
a  trained  soldier. 


94  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Over  twelve  hundred  of  the  Union  troops  were 
put  down  as  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  in  this 
engagement,  and  of  this  number  two  hundred  and 
twenty- three  were  killed. 

Mnjor  S.  D.  Sturgis  succeeded  Lyon  in  the  com- 
mand, and  soon  afterwards  ordered  a  retreat,  al- 
though it  was  perhaps  the  opinion  of  Sweeney  and 
Gordon  Granger  that  a  vigorous  pursuit  of  the  enemy 
should  have  been  preferred,  as  they  had  drawn  off, 
and  were  too  badly  handled  to  make  any  attempt 
against  the  retreating  army.  Subsequent  light 
thrown  on  this  battle  did  not  at  all  show  that 
Sweeney  and  Granger  were  not  right  in  their  judg- 
ment of  the  advantages  of  the  fight  and  the  ability 
of  the  small,  effective,  remaining  Union  force  to  pro- 
duce the  utter  rout  of  the  rebels  and  change  the  cast 
of  events. 

General  Fremont  claimed,  in  his  defense,  that  he 
was  not  responsible  either  for  this  unsuccessful  move- 
ment into  the  south-western  part  of  the  State,  or  the 
battle  of  Wilson's  Creek  ;  that  all  of  this  misfortune 
mnde  no  part  of  his  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  Western  Department.  Without  opportunity  to 
understand  the  true  state  of  the  case  on  his  arrival 
in  St.  Louis,  General  Fremont  was  greatly  perplexed 
by  the  demands  made  upon  him  from  Cairo  and 
Springfield,  and  he  fell  into  the  view  that  the  former 
point  deserved  his  atteiition  at  the  time.  The 
grounds  for  his  position  were,  perhaps,  maintainable, 
yet  there  may  justly  remain  some  doubt  as  to  his 
want  of  ability   to  have  re-enforced  Lyon  before  it 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  95 

was  too  late,  however  unjust  it  might  be  to  accuse 
him  of  a  lack  of  disposition  to  do  so. 

If  General  Fremont  had  been  guilty  of  inactivity 
and  uncertainty  before,  such  a  charge  would  have 
been  groundless  for  some  time  subsequent  to  the 
battle  of  Wilson's  Creek.  General  Pieiitiss  at  Cairo 
had  been  re-enforced,  and  the  iniportnnce  of  that 
point  had  somewhat  diminished.  Fremont  now  tele- 
graphed to  Washington  for  men  of  all  arms  and  for 
money,  and  notified  the  governors  of  the  adjoining 
States  to  send  on  such  troops  as  they  had  at  com- 
mand ;  and  his  preparations  began  on  a  scale  which 
was  proverbially  grand  and  extravagant,  somewhat  in 
keeping  with  his  own  character. 

In  the  meantime,  although  the  rebel  generals  had 
quarreled,  and  McCulloch  had  gone  south  with  his 
command,  Price,  the  ablest  officer  they  had  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  moved  toward  the  Missouri  River, 
his  force  augmenting  as  he  advanced.  What  Lyon 
had  gained  and  would  have  held,  if  he  had  been  re- 
enforced  as  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Government 
to  do,  was  now  lost.  The  rebels  overran  a  great 
part  of  the  State,  and  the  loyal  citizens  were  driven 
from  their  homes,  or  killed  and  stripped  of  all  they 
possessed. 

Fremont  now  thought  himself  justified  in  declar- 
ing the  whole  State  under  martial  law,  and  accord- 
ingly on  the  30th  of  August  he  issued  a  very 
stringent  general  order  to  that  effect,  and  in  it 
stepped  far  beyond  the  spirit  of  the  Confiscation  Act 
of  Congress   and   the   policy  of  the  Administration, 


96  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

it    was    thcKight.     It    contained    the    following    an- 
nouncement : — 

"  In  this  condition  the  puhlic  safety  and  success  of  our 
arms  require  unity  of  purpose,  without  let  or  hindrance  to 
the  prompt  administration  of  affairs.  In  order,  therefore, 
to  suppress  disorders,  maintain  the  public  peace,  and  give 
security  to  the  persons  and  property  of  loyal  citizens,  I 
do  hereby  extend  and  declare  established  martial  law 
throughout  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  lines  of  the  army 
occupation  in  this  State  are  for  the  present  declared  to 
extend  from  Leavenworth,  by  way  of  posts  of  Jefferson 
City,  Rolla,  and  Ironton,  to  Cape  Girardeau  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi River.  All  persons  who  shall  be  taken  with  arms 
in  their  hands  within  these  lines  shall  be  tried  by  court- 
martial,  and  if  found  guilty  will  be  shot.  Real  and  per- 
sonal property  of  those  who  shall  take  up  arms  against  the 
United  States,  or  who  shall  be  directly  proven  to  have 
taken  an  active  part  with  their  enemies  in  the  field,  is 
declared  confiscated  to  public  use,  and  their  slaves,  if  any 
they  have,  are  hereby  declared  free  men. 

"All  persons  who  shall  be  proven  to  have  destroyed, 
after  the  publication  of  this  order,  railroad  tracks,  bridges, 
or  telegraph  lines,  shall  suffer  the  extreme  penalty  of  the 
law.  All  persons  engaged  in  treasonable  correspondence, 
in  giving  or  procuring  aid  to  the  enemy,  in  fermenting 
turmoil,  and  disturbing  public  tranquillity,  by  creating  or 
circulating  false  reports  or  incendiary  documents,  are 
warned  that  they  are  exposing  themselves. 

"All  persons  who  have  been  led  away  from  allegiance 
are  required  to  return  to  their  homes  forthwith.  Any 
such  absence,  without  sufficient  cause,  will  be  held  to  be 
presumptive  evidence  against  them." 

A  few  days  afterwards  Fremont  issued  patents  or 
deeds  of  manumission  to  two  of  Thomas  L.  Snead's 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  97 

slaves.  Snead  had  been  one  of  Jackson's  commis- 
sioners to  negotiate  with  Jefferson  Davis  for  placing 
Missouri  under  the  rebel  authorities.  This  procla- 
mation created  much  excitement  and  ill-feeling  in 
the  border  States,  and  the  President  considering  it 
likely  to  be  detrimental  to  his  policy,  all  the  policy 
he  had  at  that  time  on  the  slavery  question,  sent  this 
brief  letter  to  General  Fremont : — 

"Washington,  D.  C,  September  11,  1861. 
"  Major-General  John  C.  Fremont  : — 

**  Sir, — Yours  of  the  8th,  in  answer  to  mine  of  the 
2d  inst.,  is  just  received.  Assured  that  3'ou,  upon  the 
ground,  could  better  judge  of  the  necessities  of  your  posi- 
tion than  I  could  at  this  distance,  on  seeing  your  procla- 
mation of  August  30th,  I  perceived  no  general  objection 
to  it;  the  particular  clause,  however,  in  relation  to  the 
confiscation  of  property  and  the  liberation  of  slaves  ap- 
peared to  rae  to  be  objectionable  in  its  non-conformity  to 
the  Act  of  Congress,  passed  the  6th  of  last  August,  upon 
the  same  subjects,  and  hence  I  wrote  you,  expressing  my 
wish  that  that  clause  should  be  modified  accordingly. 
Your  answer  just  received  expresses  the  preference  on 
your  part  that  I  should  make  an  open  order  for  the  modi- 
fication, which  I  very  cheerfully  do.  It  is,  therefore, 
ordered  that  the  said  clause  of  the  said  proclamation  be  so 
modified,  held,  and  construed  as  to  conform  with  and  not 
to  transcend  the  provisions  on  the  same  subject  contained 
in  the  act  of  Congress  entitled,  'An  act  to  confiscate  prop- 
erty used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,'  approved  August 
6,  1861,  and  that  said  Act  be  published  at  length  with  this 
order.  Your  obedient  servant,         A.  Lincoln." 

This  wns  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  what  had 
the  general  appearance  of  becoming  a  brilliant   mili- 

7-Q 


98  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

tary  career  for  General  Fremont.  In  all  this  tirae 
Price  had  been  gatliering  a  large  force  and  having 
things  his  own  way,  and  on  the  11th,  while  General 
Fremont  was  creating  his  emancipation  turmoil,  the 
advance  of  his  army  reached  Lexington  and  began 
the  attack  on  the  small  force  of  twenty-seven  hun- 
dred and  eighty  men  just  then  in  position  on  College 
Hill,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  James  B.  Mul- 
ligan, a  brave  but  inexperienced  officer,  which  ended 
in  his  capturing  the  whole  force  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  20th.  Fremont  was  greatly  chagrined  two  days 
subsequently  to  hear  of  Mulligan's  surrender,  when 
he  not  only  had  good  reason  to  believe  he  had  been 
re-enforced  by  at  least  four  thousand  men  bj^  his 
own  orders,  but  he  had  also  made  arrangements,  as 
he  thought,  to  intercept  Price  on  his  retreat.  A  few 
days  after  this  event  Fremont  himself  set  forward  to 
meet  or  pursue  Price.  But  the  rebel  general  showed 
no  disposition  to  fight,  preferring  to  retrace  his  steps 
toward  Arkansas.  Fremont  halted  at  Tipton  to  col- 
lect and  consolidate  his  army  consisting  of  nearly 
thirty  thousand  men,  about  five  thousand  being  cav- 
alry. He  had  eighty-six  guns.  But  with  all  his 
effort  and  the  exaggerated  statements  as  to  his  mag- 
nificent and  expensive  preparations,  he  was  even  now 
short  of  the  proper  means  of  transportation  for  a 
large  portion  of  his  army.  Here  on  the  loth  of  Oc- 
tober, he  was  overtaken  by  the  Secretary  of  War, 
who  had  come  out  from  Washington  in  company 
with  Adjutant  General  Thomas  and  his  staff,  for  a  con- 
ference  with    him.     Mr.  Cameron   then   carried  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  99 

authority  to  remove  Fremont  from  the  command. 
But  this  he  determined  not  to  exercise  at  that  time, 
notwithstanding  the  ^Yhole  company  returned  to 
Washington  greatly  disjdeased  with  General  Fremont's 
affairs,  and  fully  under  the  conviction  that  he  would 
be  able  to  make  little  headway  against  the  enemy. 
Nothing  that  occurred  afterwards  justified  their  pre- 
dictions or  their  unfavorable  opinions. 

On  the  27th  Fremont's  advance  reached  Spring- 
field, and  by  the  1st  of  November  the  greater  part  of 
his  army  had  arrived  at  that  point,  Pope's  division 
having,  in  the  two  preceding  days,  marched  seventy 
miles.  On  the  1st  the  order  from  Washington  came 
relieving  Fremont  from  the  command  and  placing  it 
temporarily  under  David  Hunter,  one  of  the  division 
generals.  But  Fremont,  from  the  best  information  he 
could  gain,  believing  that  Price  was  only  ten  miles 
distant  on  Wilson's  Creek,  after  consulting  with  his 
officers,  concluded  to  give  him  battle  the  next  day, 
and  issued  his  orders  to  that  effect.  That  niirht, 
however,  Hunter  arrived  and  took  command  of  the 
whole  army.  The  next  day  he  made  a  reconnoisance 
resulting  in  the  discover}^  that  the  rebels  were  not 
on  Wilson's  Creek,  but  many  miles  to  the  South,  be- 
yond striking  distance  then.  Hunter  now  ordered  a 
retreat  and  the  whole  army  fell  back  to  Rolla  and 
the  line  of  the  Kansas  railroad,  thus  a  second  time 
abandoning  the  south-western  part  of  the  State  un- 
necessarily to  the  horrors  of  a  guerrilla  warfare. 
Lyon  had  gone  down  there  to  stay,  and  had  five 
thousand  men  been  sent  to  his  aid  in  time  he  would 


100  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

have  staid  there ;  and  had  ten  thousand  more  been 
put  under  his  command  he  would,  before  the  1st  of 
January,  1862,  have  cleared  the  country  of  rebel  rule 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  the  Arkansas  River 
at  least,  and  prevented  the  Cherokee  and  Creek  In- 
dians from  falling  a  prey  to  the  machinations  of  the 
rebel  leaders.  And  now,  although  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  Fremont's  army  was  poorly  equipped,  and  his 
means  of  transportation  inadequate,  these  difficulties 
were  not  insurmountable,  and  even  at  the  worst  his 
facilities  could  never  be  worse  than  those  of  the 
rebels.  Fremont  had  well  digested  all  of  these 
things,  and  he  had  passed  through  too  much  to  think 
for  a  moment  that  a  way  would  not  open  to  the  Path- 
finder. He  had  gone  down  there,  as  Lyon  had,  to 
free  the  country  of  the  rebels  and  make  his  way  to 
the  Mississippi,  and  who  can  say  to-day  that  he  would 
not  have  accomplished  w'hat  he  started  out  to  do? 
To  a  great  extent  his  army  believed  in  him,  and  was 
full  of  enthusiasm,  and  in  it  was  a  vast  amount  of 
material  peculiarly  fit  to  be  led  by  such  a  man  as 
Fremont.  An  instance  of  this  ftict  may  be  seen  in 
the  history  of  Major  Zagonyi's  capture  of  Springfield 
on  the  26th  of  October.  Fremont  had  formed  a  Body- 
Gnard  of  three  hundred  men,  led  by  this  daring 
officer.  They  were  especially  organized  with  reference 
to  a  career  of  splendid  deeds,  and  although  they  were 
foiled  at  the  very  outset,  perhaps  their  action  at 
Springfield  was  the  most  magnificent  cavalry  feat  of 
the  long  conflict.  The  story  of  the  Body-Guard  must 
always  stand  as  a  brilliant  passage  in  the  history  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  101 

American  wars.  And  yet,  for  some  strange  reason, 
although  these  brave  men  of  the  Fremont  Body- 
Guard  had  enlisted  for  three  years.  General  McClellan 
caused  them  to  be  mustered  out  soon  after  Fremont 
himself  had  been  relieved  of  the  command. 

Whoever  was  responsible  for  the  removal  of  Fre- 
mont at  this  important  juncture,  the  evil  of  the  step 
still  remained  the  same.  If  his  appointment  had 
been  of  doubtful  propriety,  as  some  have  held,  his 
removal  was  a  calamity.  The  management  of  affairs 
in  Missouri  had,  from  the  first,  been  deplorably  bad. 
The  multitude  and  variety  of  the  President's  coun- 
selors and  the  temporizing  policy  he  deemed  it  best 
to  pursue  had  furnished  the  explanation  to  this  state 
of  affairs,  and  there  had  yet  been  little  or  no  change 
for  the  better.  Fremont  committed  some  errors; 
but  who  did  not  do  as  much?  His  removal  at  the 
time  was,  to  all  appearances,  a  misfortune  to  the 
cause ;  and  it  was,  without  doubt,  a  shameful  insult 
to  the  man  who  was  making  his  first  step  in  what 
had  every  prospect  of  being  a  brilliant  military  career. 

General  Hunter,  in  giving  up  all  that  had  been 
gained  at  so  great  a  cost,  it  has  been  claimed,  only 
carried  out  the  desire  of  the  President;  but  were  this 
true,  the  responsibility  of  committing  another  great 
error  was  merely  shifted  to  wider  shoulders.  The 
day  of  blunders  in  the  War  Department,  if  not  in  the 
Administration  also,  was  approaching  an  end.  Gen- 
eral Hunter  was  not  deemed  a  suitable  department 
commander,  and  only  a  week  after  he  took  the  place 
of  Fremont,  General  H.  W.  Halleck  superseded  him. 


102  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER    V. 

1861— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— BATTLE  OF  PEA  RIDGE— 
BELMONT  AND  COLUMBUS  — GRANT  AND  HALLECK— 
FORT  HENRY  —  FORT  DONELSON  —  MILL  SPRINGS  — 
BALL'S  BLUFF— THE  NAVY— A  GENERAL  VIEW— ENG- 
LAND—GENERAL  BURNSIDE  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

FOR  the  next  month  General  John  Pope  got  the 
credit  of  being  the  most  active  officer  in  Mis- 
souri. In  this  time  he  captured  or  broke  up  several 
small  rebel  forces,  and  finally  drove  Price  back  to 
Springfield  and  the  Arkansas  border.  The  species 
of  warfare  now  carried  on  in  Missouri,  as  throughout 
the  whole  border  line,  indeed,  only  bore  upon  the 
final  result  so  far  as  the  question  of  exhaustion  was 
concerned.  On  the  23d  of  January,  1862,  General 
Samuel  R.  Curtis,  with  twelve  or  thirteen  thousand 
men,  marched  from  Rolla  toward  Springfield  on  the 
third  of  these  expeditions  to  Arkansas.  Price,  who 
was  really  one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  rebel 
leaders,  retreated  before  him  to  Fayetteville,  in  Ar- 
kansas, where  he  was  again  joined  by  Ben  McCulloch, 
and  they  agreed  so  far  as  to  retreat  together  to  Bos- 
ton Mountain.  The  rebel  General,  Earl  Van  Dorn, 
now  arrived,  and  took  the  chief  command,  and  on 
the  5th  of  March  advanced  to  attack  the  Federals. 
With  some  difficulty  Curtis  drew  in  his  much-scattered 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  103 

forces,  and  formed  his  line  of  defense  on  the  bluffs 
of  Pea  Ridge,  overlooking  the  valley  of  Sugar  Creek. 
On  the  7th  the  battle  began,  and  when  night  closed 
the  work  of  the  day,  it  was  not  easy  to  say  where 
the  advantage  hiy.  Ben  McCuUoch  and  Mcintosh 
had  been  killed,  and  there  had  been  some  successes 
on  both  sides.  The  next  morning  the  conflict  was 
renewed,  but  in  a  few  hours  the  rebels  had  given 
way  and  retreated  through  the  defiles  of  the  Knobs, 
leaving  the  victors  on  the  field.  The  Union  Joss  in 
this  battle  was  over  thirteen  hundred  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing.  The  rebels  had  the  advantage 
in  numbers,  and  suffered  a  greater  loss.  After  a  time 
Curtis  resumed  his  march  into  Arkansas,  but  many 
of  his  men  having  been  sent  to  the  Tennessee  River, 
he  made  little  headway.  Still  he  found  little  oppo- 
sition, as  the  regularly  organized  rebel  forces  had 
also  been  mainly  sent  to  the  east  side  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, a  field  of  more  importance. 

Curtis,  toward  the  last  of  September,  became 
commander  of  the  Department  of  Missouri,  with  his 
head-quarters  at  St.  Louis;  but  its  affairs,  although 
often  serious,  and  always  bad  enough,  from  this  on, 
by  reason  of  the  great  events  in  other  quarters,  be- 
came of  little  note  in  the  great  conflict.  The  vast 
Department  of  the  West  had  been  divided  into  several 
separate  commands.  New  Mexico  was  placed  under 
General  E.  R.  S.  Canby;  Kansas,  under  General 
David  Hunter;  Missouri  was  a  department;  and 
D.  C.  Buell  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  Department 
of  the  Ohio. 


104  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

In  the  meantime  matters  had  progressed  some- 
what in  other  parts  of  the  country.  On  the  4th  of 
September  Bishop  Leonidas  Polk,  with  a  considerable 
rebel  force,  took  possession  of  Hickman  and  Columbus, 
in  Kentucky,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  and  speedily 
began  fortifications  at  the  latter,  with  a  view  of  com- 
manding the  river.  U.  S.  Grant,  who  had  just  come 
into  command  at  Cairo,  hearing  of  the  movements  of 
Polk,  sailed  on  the  next  night  with  a  small  force,  and 
on  the  morning  of  the  6th  landed  at  Paducah,  Lloyd 
Tilghman  and  a  few  rebels  under  his  command,  who 
had  also  arrived  for  the  purpose  of  claiming  that 
place,  withdrawing  without  resistance. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  under  instructions  from 
St.  Louis,  General  Grant  left  Cairo  with  about  three 
thousand  men  aboard  some  transport  boats,  con- 
veyed by  two  gun-boats,  for  the  purpose  of  occupying 
the  attention  of  the  rebels  about  Columbus,  but  wilh 
no  design  of  bringing  on  an  engagement.  Opposite 
Columbus,  in  easy  range  of  the  guns  of  General  Polk, 
was  Belmont,  a  river  station.  A  rebel  camp  was 
locnted  at  this  point,  having  a  battery  and  several 
hundred  men.  Grant  concluded  to  land  several  miles 
above,  and,  by  a  detour  through  the  woods,  fall  upon 
and  take  this  camp  before  assistance  could  reach  it 
from  Columbus.  But  Bishop  Polk  was  not  the  kind 
of  man  to  be  caught  asleep  while  an  enemy  was 
known  to  be  lurking  around.  Early  on  the  morning 
of  the  7th  Grant  landed,  and  led  his  small  force  of 
less  thnn  three  thousand  men  to  attack  Belmont. 
But  Polk   had   discovered    the  movement,  and  sent 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  105 

over  several  regiments  under  Gideon  J.  Pillow,  who 
awaited  his  approach  with  a  force  outnumbering  his 
own.  A  stubborn  fight  ensued,  in  which  the  rebels 
were  defeated  and  put  to  flight,  leaving  their  guns 
and  camp  material  behind.  Strangely  enough,  the 
victors  now  turned  into  speech-making,  congratulating 
themselves,  and  gathering  up  such  spoils  as  appeared 
worthy  of  attention.  But  all  this  time  Polk,  having 
discovered  that  no  attack  was  designed  on  his  side 
of  the  river,  was  sending  re-enforcements  to  Pillow, 
whose  routed  troops  were  reformed,  and  increased  to 
double  the  number  Grant  brought  with  him.  With 
difficulty  the  Union  troops  were  now  thrown  into  line, 
and  began  to  retrace  their  way  to  the  transports. 
But  Pillow  was  found  ready  to  dispute  the  passage, 
and  at  this  moment  some  of  General  Grant's  pestif- 
erous orators  began  to  feel  that  the  whole  thing  was 
likely  to  end  in  an  ignominious  surrender  to  the 
rebels.  Grant  had  two  remarkable  qualities,  then 
not  very  well  known — one  for  getting  into  difficulties, 
and  one  for  getting  out  of  difficulties.  He  now  said 
they  had  fought  their  way  in,  they  would  fight  their 
way  out.  And  this  they  did;  and  gained  the  trans- 
ports and  gunboats  eftar  a  severe  struggle,  the 
General  himself  being  among  the  last  to  quit  the 
land.  In  this  worthless  affair  nearly  five  hundred 
were  lost  on  the  Union  side,  and  a  greater  number 
on  the  other. 

Soon  after  Grant  took  possession  of  Paducnh, 
General  C.  F.  Smith,  by  the  suggestion  or  order  of 
General    Fremont,  stationed    a    small    force   at    the 


106  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

mouth  of  the  Cumberland  River,  twelve  miles  above. 
The  mouths  of  both  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland 
were  now  in  the  hands  of  the  Federals,  as  well  as 
the  whole  of  the  Ohio;  and  military  men  began  to 
get  some  glimpses  of  the  course  events  were  likely 
to  take.  Political  considerations  were  dropped,  to  a 
great  extent,  and  armies,  battles,  and  results  were 
mainly  brought  into  the  calculations.  The  location  of 
the  Federals  at  the  outlets  of  the  two  Southern  rivers 
greatly  annoyed  the  rebels.  This  had  been  a  very 
fortunate  movement  on  the  war  board,  and  to  Grant 
the  credit  of  making  it  was  due,  and  at  least  at  so 
early  a  moment,  and  when  it  could  be  done  without 
the  expense  of  pushing  anybody  else  out.  This 
movement  aided  somewhat  in  defining  the  general 
situation  in  a  military  sense.  On  the  Cumberland 
River  the  rebels  had  established  themselves  in  an 
exceedingly  strong  position,  called  Fort  Doiielson,  on 
the  left  or  east  bank  of  the  river;  and  opposite  the 
southern  border  of  Kentucky,  on  the  right  or  west 
bank  of  the  Tennessee,  they  had  built  Fort  Henry. 
The  strip  of  country  between  these  two  points  was 
not  over  twelve  miles  wide,  and  two  rough  roads 
connected  them. 

Soon  after  Polk  planted  himself  at  Columbus, 
Felix  K.  Zollicoifer,  with  a  small  force,  entered  Ken- 
tucky; and  about  the  middle  of  September,  Simon 
Bolivar  Buckner,  a  West  Point  graduate,  recently 
commander  of  Governor  Magoffin's  State  guards,  hav- 
ing become  a  general  in  the  rebel  cause,  engaged  in 
collecting  an  army  at  Bowling  Green.     It  now  began 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  107 

to  become  evident  that  the  key  to  the  rebel  front 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Cumberland  Mountains 
was  in  the  two  positions  on  the  CumbeiLind  and 
Tennessee  Rivers.  Even  Columbus,  which  they  ex- 
pected to  make  the  Gibraltar  of  the  West,  and  by 
which  they  believed  they  would  effectually  place 
under  their  control  the  Mississippi,  it  was  seen, 
would  have  to  be  abandoned  with  the  loss  of  Forts 
Henry  and  Donelson.  The  rebel  leaders  were  gath- 
ering their  main  strength,  political  and  military,  in 
Virginia,  with  the  purpose  of  maldng  their  greatest 
struggle  there  for  the  government  they  had  set  out 
to  establish.  The  decision  of  the  question  could 
only  be  materially  influenced  by  the  success  of  the 
national  army  in  breaking  up  the  connection  of  Vir- 
ginia with  the  great  field  of  supplies  in  the  South- 
west and  on  the  Gulf.  The  capture  of  Forts  Henry 
and  Donelson  would  open  the  way  to  Middle  Ten- 
nessee, and  at  once,  perhaps,  cut  the  first  line  of 
supplies  for  Richmond. 

It  may  be  a  question  of  doubt  as  to  the  originator 
or  discoverer  of  this  true  line  of  operations  for  the 
Government.  When  the  war  had  once  really  begun, 
and  the  country  settled  down  to  the  conviction  that 
the  struggle  would  not  end  in  a  day  or  a  single 
battle,  it  was  no  difficult  matter  to  see  that  the  re- 
gion west  of  the  Mississippi  might,  to  a  great  extent, 
be  left  out  of  the  calculations.  Nor  was  the  whole 
matter  difficult  of  solution  when  the  rebel  line  of 
policy  had  become  certain.  The  map  of  the  country 
and  the  condition  of  their  affiiirs  soon  made  the  case 


108  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

evident.  On  their  part  it  was  mainly  to  be  a  de- 
fensive war.  There  was  no  such  thing  to  involve 
the  situation  as  the  rebels  overrunning  the  West  and 
Northwest,  the  great  grain-fields  of  the  Republic. 

General  Halleck  may  have,  as  has  been  claimed, 
drawn  his  pen  over  the  route  the  Union  army  should 
take  by  way  of  Fort  Donelson,  Nashville,  Chatta- 
nooga, Atlanta,  etc.,  to  break  the  back  of  the  Re- 
bellion. W.  T.  Sherman,  who  had  become  a  general, 
may  also  have  at  an  early  day  taken  the  true  general 
view  of  the  case ;  others  began  to  have  notions  on 
the  subject;  and  all  these  matters  soon  began  to 
take  form  at  Washington. 

But  if  any  one  man  should  have  more  credit  than 
another,  or  any  one  should  be  looked  upon  in  the 
light  of  being  credited  for  doing  well  and  thinking 
wisely,  on  this  subject,  that  man  was,  perhaps,  Gen- 
eral Grant.  Through  his  persistency  the  movements 
against  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson  were  undertaken 
when  they  were.  He  had  kept  his  own  i30unsels. 
His  views  were  his  own.  When,  after  a  long  time, 
he  got  permission  to  ask  Halleck  to  be  allowed  to 
take  Fort  Henry,  he  was  sent  off  as  a  military  up- 
start. The  true  situation  of  affairs  had  not  yet 
dawned  upon  Halleck.  But  Grant  now  began  to 
display  his  dominant  trait,  pertinacity.  He  still  con- 
tinued to  notify  Halleck  of  his  desire  to  take  the 
fort,  and  press  his  views  of  the  result  of  success. 
At  last,  after  Commodore  A.  H.  Foote  had  joined 
Grant  in  an  appeal,  on  the  30th  of  January,  General 
Halleck  sent  him  word  to  get  ready,  and  on  the  sec- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  109 

ond  day  of  February  he  started  up  the  Tennessee 
with  seventeen  thousand  men  on  transports,  conveyed 
by  seven  gun-boats  under  Commodore  Foote. 

On  the  4th  and  5th  the  troops  were  landed  a 
few  miles  below  Fort  Henry,  and  the  next  morning 
started  on  a  long,  circuitous  journey  through  mud 
and  water  to  the  fort,  and  just  before  noon  Commo- 
dore Foote  steamed  up  and  began  the  bombardment. 
The  place  was  commanded  by  Lloyd  Tilghman,  then 
ranking  as  a  general.  The  course  he  chose  to  pur- 
sue was  quite  remarkable.  After  failing  to  bring 
re-enforcements  from  Fort  Donelson,  he  determined 
to  send  the  three  thousand  men  under  him  over  to 
the  other  fort,  and  with  about  one  hundred  remain 
and  make  such  resistance  as  he  could. 

On  the  night  of  the  5th  and  the  following  morn- 
ing, though  compelled  to  leave  the  greater  part  of 
their  baggage  and  supplies,  these  troops  left  the  fort, 
and  without  much  hindrance  reached  Donelson;  and 
there  wa's  nothing  in  the  world  to  have  prevented 
General  Tilghman  doing  the  same  thing  with  all  the 
well  men  at  Fort  Henry. 

Tilghman  Mcted  very  bravely  during  the  fight 
with  the  gun-boats ;  but  a  series  of  sad  misfortunes 
befell  his  little  garrison  from  the  outset,  and  a  little 
before  two  o'clock  he  pulled  down  his  flag  and  surren- 
dered to  Commodore  Foote,  and  an  hour  afterwards 
the  head  of  General  Grant's  land  force  entered  the 
fort.  These  troops  had  taken  no  part  in  the  affair, 
except  that  some  of  them  had  captured  a  battery  and 
a  few  prisoners  from  the  retreating  rebel  force.* 


110  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Grant  had  only  asked  permission  to  capture  Fort 
Henry.  Nothing  had  been  said  directly  between  him 
and  General  Halleck  as  to  Donelson.  But  in  his  dis- 
patches to  Halleck,  he  simply  said  :  "I  shall  take  and 
destroy  Fort  Donelson  on  the  8th,  and  return  to  Fort 
Henry."  And  so  Halleck  notified  General  Buell. 
Grant  had  something  to  learn  yet.  Although  he  was 
always  characterized  for  what  was  termed  the  mod- 
esty of  his  reports,  about  this  dispatch  to  General 
Halleck  there  was  an  evident  air  of  inexperience  as 
to  the  men  with  whom  he  had  to  contend,  and  the 
probable  difficulties  to  be  overcome  otherwise,  if  it 
did  not  also  say  that  what  he  undertook  he  did,  and 
that  was  the  end  of  it. 

But  two  things  changed  the  prospects  at  once, 
and  when  the  8th  came,  General  Grant  could  only 
telegraph  that  the  high  stage  of  the  water  had  ren- 
dered it  about  all  he  could  do  to  hold  what  he  had 
taken.  Besides  this  unexpected  cause  of  delay, 
Tilghman's  good  gunning  had  disabled  some  of  Com- 
modore Foote's  gun-boats,  and  that  officer  had  returned 
to  Cairo  for  repairs  So  that  it  was  the  12th  before 
Grant  could  begin  his  movement  across  the  country, 
and  by  that  time  the  rebel  force  at  Fort  Donelson 
had  been  raised  to  about  twenty  thousand  men,  ten 
or  twelve  thousand  more  than  it  was  on  the  8th,  the 
day  on  which  his  promise  would  have  been  made 
good,  no  doubt,  had  he  been  able  to  move  against  it. 
As  it  was,  he  went  into  position  before  the  rebels  on 
the  night  of  the  13th  with  only  fifteen  thousand 
men  stretched  out  in  a  line  nearly  three  miles  long. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Ill 

Of  course,  his  force  was  greatly  overestimated  by  the 
rebels,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases.  This  was  especially 
fortunate  for  him.  The  rebels  had,  to  some  extent; 
realized  that  the  capture  of  these  forts  would  weaken 
or  break  up  their  advanced  line  from  the  Cumberlnnd 
Mountains  and  Bowling  Green  to  Columbus,  and  con- 
sequently extraordinary  exertions  were  put  forth  for 
a  desperate  stake. 

The  notorious  John  B.  Floyd  had,  much  against 
his  will,  come  in  on  the  12th,  and  was  the  senior 
officer  at  the  fort.  Floyd  always  seemed  to  go  about 
in  a  kind  of  presentiment  that  he  was  wanted  for 
his  past  deeds,  and  that  something  was  going  to  be- 
fall him.  He  thought  the  people  of  the  United 
States  had  an  especial  halter  for  him,  and  with  no 
little  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  did  he  trust  himself  to 
the  doubtful  limits  of  Fort  Donelson.  But  if  Floyd 
had  a  naturally  strong  desire  to  avoid  falling  into 
the  hands  of  the  Federalists,  he  was  not  by  any 
means  a  coward,  though  his  military  career  had  a 
rather  ignominious  ending  soon  after  this  historic 
event,  notwithstanding  the  great  service  he  had  ren- 
dered in  organizing  the  conspiracy,  and  putting  the 
Rebellion  on  foot.  Gideon  J.  Pillow  also  appeared 
to  be  uneasy  about  his  position  at  Fort  Donelson. 

But  the  rebels  had  many  good  officers,  among 
whom  was  S.  B.  Buckner,  although  it  must  be  seen 
their  affairs  were  not  very  wisely  handled,  perhaps. 
At  all  events  they  might  have  greatly  annoyed  Gen- 
eral Grant  in  his  march  from  the  Tennessee,  and 
their   position   was    one   of  great   natural    strength. 


112  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  fort  stood  a  hundred  feet  above  the  river,  which 
it  commanded  for  a  long  distance,  and  Jill  of  Commo- 
dore Foote's  fleet  of  iron-clad  gun-boats  was  little 
more  than  a  fleet  of  tubs  or  bubbles  before  it.  The 
strong  and  easily  constructed  abattis  on  the  land 
side,  with  the  high  water  in  the  surrounding  creeks, 
and  the  broken  condition  of  the  country,  rendei'ed  it 
almost  impregnable,  and  certainly  to  an  army  at  the 
last  not  overwhelmingly  numerous. 

On  the  13th  Grant  completed  his  investment  of 
the  rebels ;  and  on  that  night  Commodore  Foote  ar- 
rived with  his  flotilla  and  bringing  a  large  land  re- 
enforcement  for  the  army,  which  by  the  next  day  or 
the  day  after  amounted  to  nearly  twenty-seven  thou- 
sand men.  From  the  moment  Halleck  received  the 
intelligence  of  Grant's  success  at  Fort  Henry,  and 
his  design  on  the  other  and  more  formidable  position, 
he  made  herculean  efl'orts  to  forward  troops  and  sup- 
plies. His  achievement  in  this  respect  was  admirable 
and  fortunate.  And  even  after  all  he  had  done, 
Grant  came  near  allowing  the  rebels  to  run  away, 
besides  being  badly  whipped  himself. 

A  great  part  of  Thursday,  the  13th,  there  was 
hard  fighting,  but  the  Federal  troops  pressed  forward 
and  took  the  positions  assigned  them  for  the  final 
struggle  on  the  succeeding  days.  On  Friday  morn- 
ing the  rebel  generals  in  council  decided  to  cut  their 
way  out  that  day  before  it  would  be  too  late,  but  for 
some  cause  this  project  was  not  attempted  then,  and 
the  day  was  passed  in  comparntive  quiet  by  the 
Union  army.      In  the  afternoon,  however,  Commo- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  113 

dore  Foote  tried  his  power  on  the  fort,  and  before 
night  was  knocked  entirely  out  of  the  fight,  his  boats 
all  disabled,  and  himself  and  many  of  his  officers 
and  men  wounded,  and  quite  a  number  killed.  This 
night  again  the  rebel  commanders  considered  the 
question  of  cutting  their  way  through  the  Union 
army,  and  decided  as  they  had  done  before.  Ac- 
cordingly at  early  dawn  on  Saturday,  the  15th, 
preparations  for  the  sortie  began.  There  had  been 
a  division  in  the  council  as  to  the  course  to  be 
taken  with  the  war  material,  baggage,  and  supplies, 
if  the  sortie  proved  successful,  and  so  some  of  the 
troops  appeared  in  the  conflict  of  the  day  with 
knapsacks  and  rations  for  a  journey,  and  others  in 
whole  regiments  and  brigades  carried  with  them  to 
the  field  only  arms  for  the  fight.  The  attack  was 
made  with  skill  and  by  noon  the  division  of  General 
John  A.  McClernand  forming  the  Union  right  was 
pressed  entirely  back  from  the  road  on  the  river,  and 
the  route  actually  opened  to  the  country  beyond; 
several  of  the  Union  regiments  had  been  seriously 
handled,  and  had  retired  from  the  contest;  whole 
brigades  were  pushed  back  and  for  the  time  thrown 
out  of  the  fight;  the  rebels  had  captured  several 
guns  and  several  hundred  prisoners ;  in  the  midst  of 
the  confusion,  with  defeat  staring  them  in  the  face, 
McClernand,  Lewis  Wallace,  and  others  had  applied 
to  Grant  for  orders,  but  he  was  silent;  General 
John  McArthur,  who  had  arrived  the  evening  before, 
had  not  even  been  assigned  a  position,  and  had  found 
one  for  himself,  had  fought,  and  been  whipped,  and 

8-Q 


114  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

withdrawn  from  the  field  to  rest  and  reform ;  Wal- 
lace at  last  assumed  the  responsibility,  and  ordered 
forward  the  reserves,  checking  the  rebel  advance, 
whipping  and  disheartening  Pillow's  command,  and 
forcing  a  general  retirement  upon  the  intrenched 
positions ;  yet  Buckner  was  in  the  place  assigned 
him,  and  ready  to  make  a  strong  movement  forward 
which  would  in  all  probability  have  carried  the  day ; 
but  at  this  important  crisis  the  rebels  stood  still; 
their  right  had  suddenly  appeared  to  be  in  danger; 
indecision  had  seized  some  of  the  leaders;  there  was 
another  conflict  of  authority ;  and  Grant  for  the  first 
time  that  day  had  arrived  on  the  field.  In  the  night 
Commodore  Foote  had  urged  him  to  meet  him  on 
his  boat,  to  apprise  him  of  the  shattered  condition 
of  his  fleet,  and  inform  him  of  his  determination  to 
return  to  Cairo.  Here  he  had  spent  all  the  morning,, 
and  the  firing  which  was  on  the  extreme  right  sev- 
eral miles  through  the  woods  up  the  river,  he  sup- 
posed to  be  the  usual  skirmishing,  and  for  some  un- 
accountable reason  he  had  not  been  notified  of  the 
true  state  of  the  case.  He  was  but  a  moment  in 
getting  the  situation.  He  announced  to  the  broken 
troops  that  the  three  days'  rations  found  on  the  dead 
bodies  of  some  of  the  rebels  truly  indicated  that  they 
had  been  attempting  to  cut  a  way  out;  and  seeing 
that  a  straw  would  turn  the  day  for  or  against  him, 
and  that  depended  upon  immediate  action,  he  threw 
forward  the  great  mass  of  his  effective  force,  the 
spirit  of  the  scene  was  changed ;  force  after  force 
was  hurled  upon  the   confused  and  wavering  rebels. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  115 

and  as  night  set  in  they  were  completely  crushed 
back  into  their  works,  with  parts  of  them  occupied 
by  the  Federals,  ready  to  finish  the  work  on  Sunday 
morning. 

That  night  there  were  strange  scenes  in  Fort 
Donelson.  Pillow  was  disposed  to  think  there  was 
still  ground  for  believing  they  could  cut  their  way 
out ;  at  all  events  he  would  not  surrender.  Floyd  de- 
clared he  wonld  rather  die,  but  agreed  with  Buck- 
ner  that  the  contest  was  at  an  end.  So  it  was  agreed 
that  Floyd,  Pillow,  Forrest,  and  as  many  others  as 
could,  should  run  away,  and  Buckner  should  sur- 
render in  the  morning,  Forrest  went  out  through 
the  mud  and  water  on  the  Union  right  with  most  of 
the  cavalry  before  daylight,  and  Pillow  and  his  staff 
got  over  the  river,  as  did  also  Floyd  and  a  consider- 
able portion  of  his  brigade.  Many  had  slipped  away 
during  the  day  and  night,  and  when  Buckner's  bugle 
blew  the  surrender  at  dawn  on  Sunday  his  army  had 
been  decreased  by  five  thousand  of  these  fellows  of 
all  ranks. 

On  Sunday,  February  16th,  Buckner  wrote  to 
General  Grant  proposing  the  appointment  of  commis- 
sioners to  settle  the  terms  of  surrender.  To  this 
proposition  Grant  replied  immediately  in  his  cele- 
brated words  :  "  No  terms  other  than  an  uncondi- 
tional and  immediate  surrender  can  be  accepted.  I 
propose  to  move  immediately  upon  your  works." 

Nearly  fifteen  thousand  men  were  surrendered, 
with  sixty-five  guns  and  about  eighteen  thousand 
small  arms,  and  a  large  quantity  of  stores.     But  it 


116  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  not  a  cheaply  bought  victory.  Over  three 
thousand  were  "  killed,  wounded,  and  missing "  on 
the  Union  side ;  and  about  two  thousand  of  the 
rebels.  But  nothing  had  yet  happened  to  the  Gov- 
ernment side  which  gave  it  such  a  set  forward ;  the 
whole  loyal  country  was  in  ecstasies.  This  was  a 
severe  blow  to  the  rebels  which  they  were  not  slow 
to  realize,  and  its  fruits  were  soon  widely  visible. 
Bowling  Green  and  Columbus  were  evacuated,  and 
before  the  week  the  Union  line  had  been  extended 
to  Nashville.  For  all  of  this  Halleck  said  that  he 
must  have  the  command  in  the  West,  and  Grant,  the 
brave  old  C.  F.  Smith,  John  A.  McClernand,  and 
Lewis  Wallace  must  be  major-generals.  Asking,  and 
even  pressing,  for  the  laurels  was  not  inconsistent 
with  General  Halleck's  modesty  or  patriotism. 

Only  three  dnys  after  this  event,  the*  battle  of 
Mill  Springs,  near  Somerset,  Kentucky,  was  fought. 
In  this  the  Federals  under  Georije  H.  Thomas,  were 
again  victorious,  whipping  and  driving  the  whole 
rebel  force  several  miles  to  their  camp  on  the  Cum- 
berland River.  During  the  night,  General  George 
B.  Crittenden,  the  rebel  commander,  succeeded  in 
conveying  his  whole  army  across  the  river,  and  when 
morning  dawned  General  Thomas,  to  his  great  cha- 
grin, discovered  that  the  foe  had  escaped,  leaving, 
however,  a  camp  full  of  valuable  material  and  live- 
stock which  the  Rebellion  could  hardly  aiTord  to 
spare.  In  this  battle  fell  Felix  K.  Zollicoffer,  who 
in  October  had  been  whipped  by  General  Albin 
Schoepfif  ina  stubborn  engagement  at  Rockcastle  Hills, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  117 

or  Camp  Wildcat,  in  Kentucky.  This  important 
stroke,  coming  so  quickly  on  the  heels  of  Fort  Donel- 
son,  greatly  excited  the  enthusiasm  of  the  loyal 
North,  and  advanced  the  reputation  of  her  soldiers 
and  general  officers.  While,  in  the  ordinary  sense, 
there  was  cause  for  rejoicing,  there  was  also  abun- 
dant cause  of  sorrow  to  the  friends  of  the  country. 
Many  a  brave  man  had  fallen,  and  it  required  a  grand 
and  heroic  philosophy  to  be  able  to  say  that  to  die 
for  the  country  was  no  sacrifice,  that  to  live  amidst 
its  ruin  would  be  eternal  ignominy. 

On  the  22(1  of  October  there  had  been  a  great 
tragedy,  hardly  a  battle,  at  Ball's  Bluff  above  Har- 
rison's Island  in  the  Potomac,  where  three  hundred 
men  were  pushed  over  the  bluff  and  shot  or  drowned 
in  the  river,  and  seven  hundred  captured  in  what 
was  designed  as  a  simple  reconnoisance  about  Lees- 
buro;.  In  this  wretchedly  managed  affair  fell  Colonel 
Edward  L.  Baker,  an  officer  of  great  promise. 

Many  other  engagements  of  little  direct  moment 
in  settling  the  great  conflict  had  occurred  here  and 
there  along  the  extensive  war  border,  by  the  first  of 
March,  1862,  but  these  can  not  be  noticed  here. 

On  the  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration  the 
American  navy  proper  was  composed  of  forty-two 
vessels,  steamers  and  sailing-ships,  carrying  five 
hundred  and  fifty-five  guns  and  seven  thousand,  six 
hundred  men.  These  were  distributed  far  and  wide 
over  the  world,  so  that  when  the  moment  came  for 
the  Government  to  strike  for  its  life,  it  was  deprived 
of  the  assistance  of  even  this  little  navy.     With  the 


118  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

army  on  the  frontier  and  the  forts  mainly  in  the 
hands  of  disloyal  officers,  it  was  an  easy  matter  for 
the  conspirators  to  seize  the  arms  and  property  of 
the  Government.  It  had  never  been  a  part  of  the 
policy  of  the  Democrats,  long  mainly  dominant  in 
the  administration  of  the  Government,  to  strengthen 
the  army  and  the  navy ;  and  during  the  last  Admin- 
istration, and  to  some  extent,  the  preceding  one,  both 
of  these  peculiarly  national  features  of  the  Republic 
were  either  systematically  neglected,  or  purposely 
weakened,  and  as  far  as  possible  offi.cered  by  men 
who  would  be  willing  to  desert  or  betray  the  Nation 
under  a  political  creed  which  had  no  place  with  the 
"  privates  "  in  the  army  or  the  common  sailors  of  the 
navy.  And  especially  was  it  true  that  the  "  sailor 
boys"  knew  no  politics  which  divided  their  allegiance 
to  "Uncle  Sam."  On  the  ocean,  in  the  American 
Navy,  there  were  no  State  lines,  no  State  sover- 
eignty. And  in  the  vast  marine  force  now  rapidly 
organized,  there  were  no  State  quotas,  no  State  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  Government,  no  State 
companies,  crews,  ships,  or  squadrons.  This  was  yet 
emphatically  the  American  Navy,  and  as  such,  during 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  it  acquired  a  fame  which 
startled  Europe,  excited  the  rage  of  England,  and 
left  little  chance  for  doubt  as  to  the  claim  of  "mis- 
tress of  the  sea,"  in  a  foreign  contest. 

Gideon  Welles,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  whom 
Mr.  Lincoln  put  at  the  head  of  the  Naval  Depart- 
ment, was  admirably  suited  to  the  position.  No 
man    connected   with    the    Government    during   this 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  119 

great  trial  ordeal  through  which  it  passed  performed 
the  task  intrusted  to  him  with  more  fidelity  and 
ability  than  did  Gideon  Welles.  Under  James  K. 
Polk  he  had  been  at  the  head  of  a  branch  of  the 
s.ime  department,  and  until  the  organization  of  the 
Republican  party  and  the  end  of  the  old  issues  he 
had  been  a  Democrat.  He  was  well  advanced  in 
years,  and  he  bore  a  large  share  of  the  ridicule 
which  at  first  attached  to  a  Cabinet  believed  to  be 
composed  of  men  too  old  for  the  emergency.  From 
the  very  nature  of  his  Department,  notwithstanding 
so  much  was  expected  of  the  navy,  it  was  void  of 
that  noise  and  show  which  belonged  to  the  army, 
and  its  affairs  were  conducted  throughout  with  an 
unostentatious  quietness  no  less  admirable  than  the 
wonderful  dispatch  and  determination  by  which  a 
magnificent  river  and  sea-going  marine  of  nearly  five 
hundred  vessels  sprang  into  effective  service  by  the 
4th  of  March,  1862.    . 

Mr.  Welles  was  fortunate,  as  was  the  country,  in 
having  by  his  side  as  Assistant-Secretary  of  the  Navy 
-and  Chief  Clerk,  Gustavus  Vasa,  Fox  and  William 
Faxon.  Captain  Fox  had  given  General  Scott  and 
the  Administration  a  lesson  in  energy  and  adventure 
in  a  perfectly  feasible  plan  for  resupplying  Fort 
Sumter,  which  failed  through  no  fault  of  his,  and 
which  might  have  been  executed  on  any  one  of  fifty 
preceding  dark  nights. 

The  general  work  of  the  navy  was  divided  into 
two  branches,  service  on  the  seas,  and  service  on  the 
rivers ;  and  hence  these  two  features  were  made  the 


120  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

foundation  of  its  organization.  And  what  was  it 
expected  to  do  ?  It  was  to  blockade  effectually  the 
entire  Southern  coast  from  the  Chesapeake  Bay  to 
the  Rio  Grande ;  to  protect  the  sea-board  ;  to  look 
after  rebel  pirates  on  the  ocean,  in  the  harbors, 
and  on  the  hundreds  of  broad-mouthed  inlets  of  the 
coast;  to  patrol  the  rivers,  as  the  Potomac,  Ohio, 
and  Mississippi;  to  transport  troops  on  these  rivers, 
and  co-operate  in  battles ;  to  convey  vast  land  ex- 
peditions to  points  on  the  coast,  and  aid  in  capturing 
and  guarding  them ;  to  assail  the  foe  in  whatever 
condition  found,  on  its  own  account;  to  be  ready  for 
any  foreign  issue  which  might  arise ;  and  to  fulfill 
the  enormous  demands  for  army  supplies  on  the  coast 
and  the  inland  waters.  To  prepare  and  organize  this 
vast  force  was  a  task  which  the  country  little  realized, 
where  the  pomp  and  tumult  of  the  army  absorbed 
the  common  interest. 

In  the  construction  of  war-vessels  the  well-known 
American  system,  not  the  English,  was  pursued ;  and 
the  spirit  of  the  people  and  the  extraordinary  de- 
mands of  the  times  were  made  the  basis  of  new 
inventions,  new  models,  and  new  principles  in  naval 
structure  and  armament.  Three  general  principles 
long  recognized  in  America  were  now  made  promi- 
nent in  the  great  work  of  ship-building  entered  upon 
with  all  the  energy  and  resouice  of  the  Government. 
These  were  :  the  highest  possible  conditions  of  speed, 
the  greatest  concentration  of  projectile  force,  and  the 
least  possible  exposure  of  surface  in  armored  vessels. 
Were   it  my   disposition  to  follow  out  minutely  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  121 

history  of  the  Government  in  the  purchase  of  mer- 
chant ships  and  steamers  of  every  grade  and  class; 
of  their  remodeling  and  adaptation ;  of  the  construc- 
tion of  a  vast  blockading  fleet;  of  experiments 
and  new  models  ;  of  the  iron-clad  gun-boats  and  the 
wonderful  turreted  monitors,  the  overgrowth  of  these 
volumes  would  prevent,  it  having  already  rendered  a 
mere  bird's-eye  view  of  the  battle-field  an  absolute 
necessity.  At  the  actual  inauguration  of  the  war  the 
navy  was  as  destitute  of  heavy  guns  as  it  was  of 
war-ships.  At  Gosport  alone  there  had  been  lost  by 
treason,  imbecility,  or  cowardice,  enough  to  equip  a 
vast  navy.  At  the  beginning  of  1864  there  were 
over  three  thousand  great  guns,  some  of  them  carry- 
ing enormous  projectiles  a  distance  of  three  or  four 
miles ;  and  at  the  end  of  this  year  the  number  of 
steamers  and  sailing-vessels  actually  in  commission  in 
charge  of  the  Department  of  the  Navy  was  nearly 
five  hundred. 

At  the  outset  there  were  technically  two  ways 
open  to  the  Administration  in  the  treatment  of  the 
coast  question.  It  chose  to  take  that  one  which  did 
not  meet  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy ; 
that  is,  to  declare  a  blockade  instead  of  that  all  the 
rebel  ports  were  closed.  If  the  blockade  were  de- 
cided upon,  it  was  argued,  the  national  authorities 
did  for  themselves  what  they  censured  England  and 
France  for  doing :  they  virtually  acknowledged  the 
rebels  to  be  a  belligerent  power,  to  be  treated  as 
such,  and  not  as  domestic  traitors.  According  to  the 
custom  of  nations,  upon   the   closing   of  the  ports  a 


122  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

different  construction  would  be  placed;  one  in  har- 
mony with  the  intentions  of  the  Government  in 
treating  the  rebels  as  domestic  foes,  with  all  rights 
forfeited,  and  from  which  there  was  another  departure 
in  the  exchange  of  prisoners.  The  exchange  of  pris- 
oners did,  of  course,  become  a  necessity  as  a  matter 
of  humanity,  but  this  act  by  no  means  declared  the 
independent  belligerent  power  of  the  Rebellion.  Nor 
did  the  blockade  do  anything  of  the  kind.  That 
English  writers,  friendly  to  the  Rebellion,  would  twist 
and  overestimate  this  matter,  was  to  be  expected. 
But  the  distinction  between  a  blockade  and  a  closing 
of  the  ports  was  without  practical  difference.  And 
it  was  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  had  the  President 
simply  declared  the  rebel  ports  closed,  that  would 
have  lessened  the  work  of  the  blockade  to  the  navy, 
or  materially,  if  at  all,  simplified  the  foieign  feature 
of  the  case.  This  whole  matter  was  in  the  diplo- 
matic imagination,  and  on  paper. 

Nothing  but  a  thorough  and  fearless  blockade 
would  in  any  case  have  prevented  English  piracy,  or 
thwarted  England's  ravenous  lust  for  Southern  cotton 
and  Southern  traffic.  The  Administration  wisely  saw 
that  between  this  blockade  and  war  with  England,  as 
an  ignominious  ally  of  the  Slavery  Rebellion,  there 
was  no  alternative.  In  amazement  this  envious  and 
unchristian  power  saw  the  growth  of  the  American 
Navy,  its  successful  blockade  of  the  vast  coast,  and 
its  wonderful  feats  of  war.  At  the  shrine  of  her 
cupidity  England  was  ready  to  offer  up  all  her  former 
hypocrisy  and   pretensions  to  Abolitionism.     In  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  123 

society  of  the  free  North  there  was  nothing  to  corre- 
spond to  her  brainless  aristocracy.  To  this  thing 
and  mammon,  not  right  and  God,  has  not  England 
ever  been  ready  to  bow  down  ?  Her  "  press  "  during 
the  Rebellion  was  uncommonly  licentious,  and  it 
breathed,  unmistakably,  but  one  sentiment  as  to  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  its  utter  and 
eternal  overthrow.  A  success  of  the  South  she 
regarded  as  her  own  success;  and  when,  one  by  one, 
the  efforts  of  the  rebel  leaders  to  build  and  main- 
tain a  navy  gave  way  before  Yankee  ingenuity,  she 
looked  upon  it  as  her  own  calamity.  The  success 
of  the  American  Navy  was  a  success  over  England. 
The  conquest  of  the  Rebellion  was  a  victory  over 
England. 

Early  in  the  summer  of  1862,  with  an  eye  to 
the  uncertain  attitude  of  England,  Secretary  Welles 
said  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Naval  Committee  of 
Congress : — 

"  No  nation  can  have  an  advantage  over  us  if  we  avail 
ourselves  of  our  means  and  opportunities,  and  it  is  no 
longer  doubtful  that  our  future  safety  and  welfare  are 
dependent  on  our  naval  strength  and  efficiency.  It  is  a 
duty  as  well  as  a  necessity  that  we  make  these  United 
States  a  great  naval  power.  We  owe  it  to  ourselves  to 
commence  this  work  at  once,  and  the  present  Congress 
should,  in  my  opinion,  take  the  preliminary  steps  for  laying 
the  foundation  for  the  construction  of  a  navy  commensurate 
with  the  wants  and  magnitude  of  the  country.  .  .  . 
The  experience  we  have  had  admonishes  us  not  to  permit 
a  war  to  come  upon  us  unprepared,  yet  such  an  event  may 
be    pending,  and    the    responsibilities   and  calamities  that 


124  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

would   follow  neglect   should  be  a  warning   for  us  to  be 
prepared." 

This  was  the  sentiment  which  gave  life  and 
strength  to  the  American  Navy  at  this  critical  period, 
and  so  materially  aided  England  in  recollecting  her 
past  experiences  with  America  when  no  such  spirit 
controlled  the  administration  of  public  affairs. 

Long  before  the  first  blow  was  struck  by  the  army 
toward  crushing  the  Rebellion,  the  navy  was  active 
in  some  part  of  the  vast  work  allotted  to  it,  but  the 
first  considerable  naval  expedition  was  not  sent  out 
until  August,  1861.  On  the  26th  of  this  month  a 
fleet  of  seven  war  vessels,  and  a  number  of  transport 
steamers  and  others,  under  the  command  of  Commo- 
dore S.  H.  Stringham,  and  carrying  nine  hundred 
troops  under  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  left  Fortress 
Monroe  to  begin  the  work  of  repossessing  the  Atlantic 
coast,  and  breaking  up  the  system  of  blockade  run- 
ning in  the  patronage  of  England.  On  the  following 
day  this  formidable  squadron  arrived  off  Hatteras 
Inlet,  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  This  is  the 
main  inlet  to  Pamlico  and  Albemarle  Sounds,  and 
the  considerable  inland  water-system  connected  with 
them.  North  of  this  inlet  is  the  long,  narrow,  low, 
sandy  Hatteras  Island,  on  which  the  rebels  had  built 
two  forts,  Clark  and  Hatteras,  commanded  by  Samuel 
Barron,  a  man  whose  false  pretensions  a  few  months 
before  had  nearly  gained  the  confidence  of  the  Pres- 
ident, and,  thereby,  an  important  post  in  the  Navy 
Department. 

On  the  28th  three  hundred  of   General  Butler's 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  125 

troops,  with  one  gun,  and  very  little  ammunition  and 
no  provisions,  were  landed  a  few  miles  above  the 
forts,  the  condition  of  the  surf  absolutely  preventing 
either  the  landing  of  supplies,  or  of  more  troops  that 
day.  The  attack  on  the  forts  was  immediately  begun ^ 
and  the  next  d;iy,  before  noon,  Barron  surrendered 
unconditionally,  with  seven  hundred  men,  twenty-five 
cannon,  and  a  thousand  small  arms.  This  was  an 
exceedingly  valuable  stroke  to  the  national  cause, 
breaking,  at  the  outset,  the  most  easy  and  direct 
road  for  the  British  supplies  to  reach  Richmond. 

But  this  work  was  not  yet  fully  accomplished. 
The  shallow  channels  connecting  Pamlico  and  Albe- 
marle Sounds  were  still  held  by  the  rebels,  strongly 
fortified  at  several  points  on  Roanoke  Island.  On 
the  11th  of  January,  1862,  a  considerable  fleet  of 
war-vessels,  under  Flag-of&cer  L.  M.  Goldsborough, 
carrying  twelve  thousand  troops,  commanded  by  Gen- 
eral A.  E.  Burnside,  sailed  from  Hampton  Roads,  and 
two  days  after  reached  Hatteras  Inlet.  Here  it  was 
found  that  many  of  the  transport  and  other  vessels 
which  had  been  smuggled  into  the  Government  service 
for  this  expedition  were  not  only  of  too  great  draft 
for  the  shallow  inlet,  but  were  also  unseaworthy;  and 
not  for  two  weeks  was  the  fleet  able  to  get  into 
Pamlico  Sound,  and  not  then  without  serious  losses. 
At  last,  however,  all  obstacles  were  overcome,  and 
the  attack  on  Roanoke  Island  began  on  the  7th  of 
February  by  the  fleet.  That  night  Burnside  landed 
with  the  greater  part  of  his  force,  and  on  the  8  th, 
after  several   sharp  conflicts,  the  island  with  its  forts 


126  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  the  greater  part  of  the  rebel  troops,  under  Henry 
A.  Wise,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Federals.  The 
rebel  fleet  was  destroyed,  and  Elizabeth  City,  Winton, 
and  other  depots  on  the  main-land  soon  after  were 
captured.  Thus,  by  the  4th  of  March,  the  navy  had 
not  only  done  its  full  share  of  the  work  of  putting 
down  the  Rebellion,  enabling  the  army  to  strike 
blows  where  it  never  could  have  reached  of  itself, 
but  it  was  now  on  the  eve  of  settling  the  most 
momentous  point  connected  with  the  war,  as  will  be 
seen  farther  on. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  127 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CONGRESS   IN    FIRST  REGULAR   SESSION  UNDER  MR.  LIN- 
COLN—FIRST ANNUAL  MESSAGE— FOLLY  OF  HABEAS 
C(9y?/'t/5— MARTIAL   LAW— THE    CHIEF  JUSTICE. 

ON  the  2d  day  of  December,  1861,  Congress  again 
met,  and  on  the  next  day  the  President  trans- 
mitted his 

FIRST  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : — 

III  the  midst  of  unprecedented  political  troubles,  we  have 
cause  of  great  gratitude  to  God  for  unusual  good  health  and 
most  abundant  harvests. 

You  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that,  in  the  peculiar 
exigencies  of  the  times,  our  intercourse  with  foreign  nations 
has  been  attended  with  profound  solicitude,  chiefly  turning  upon 
our  own  domestic  affairs. 

A  disloyal  portion  of  the  American  people  have,  during  the 
whole  year,  been  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  divide  and  destroy 
the  Union.  A  nation  which  endures  factious  domestic  division 
is  exposed  to  disrespect  abroad,  and  one  party,  if  not  both,  is 
sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  invoke  foreign  intervention. 

Nations  thus  tempted  to  interfere  are  not  always  able  to  re- 
sist the  counsels  of  seeming  expediency  and  ungenerous  ambi- 
tion, although  measures  adopted  under  such  influences  seldom 
fail  to  be  unfortunate  and  injurious  to  those  adopting  them. 

The  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  have  offered 
the  ruin  of  our  country  in  return  for  the  aid  and  comfort  which 
they  have  invoked  abroad,  have  received  less  patronage  and 
encouragement  than  they  probably  expected.  If  it  were  just  to 
suppose,  as  the  insurgents  have  seemed  to  assume,  that  foreign 


128  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

nations,  in  this  case,  discarding  all  moral,  social,  and  treaty 
obligations,  would  act  solely  and  selfishly  for  the  most  speedy 
restoration  of  commerce,  including  especially  the  acquisitions  of 
cotton,  those  nations  appear,  as  yet,  not  to  have  seen  their  Avay 
to  their  object  more  directly  or  clearly  through  the  destruction 
than  through  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  If  we  could 
dare  to  believe  that  foreign  nations  are  actuated  by  no  higher 
principle  than  this,  I  am  quite  sure  a  sound  argument  could  be 
made  to  show  them  that  they  can  reach  their  aim  more  readily 
and  easily  by  aiding  to  crush  this  Rel^ellion  than  by  giving 
encouragement  to  it. 

The  principal  lever  relied  on  by  the  insurgents  for  exciting 
foreign  nations  to  hostility  against  us,  as  already  intimated,  is 
the  embarrassment  of  commerce.  Those  nations,  however,  not 
improbably,  saw  from  the  first  that  it  Avas  the  Union  which 
made  as  well  our  foreign  as  our  domestiq  commerce.  They 
can  scarcely  have  failed  to  perceive  that  the  eflJbrt  for  disunion 
produces  the  existing  difficidty;  and  that  one  strong  nation 
promises  more  durable  peace,  and  a  more  extensive,  valuable, 
and  reliable  commerce,  than  can  the  same  nation  broken  into 
hostile  fragments. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  review  our  discussions  with  foreign 
States;  because  whatever  might  be  their  wishes  or  dispositions, 
the  integrity  of  our  country  and  the  stability  of  our  Govern- 
ment mainly  depend,  not  upon  them,  but  on  the  loyalty,  virtue, 
patriotism,  and  intelligence  of  the  American  people.  The 
correspondence  itself,  with  the  usual  reservations,  is  herewith 
submitted. 

I  venture  to  hope  it  will  appear  that  we  have  practiced 
prudence  and  liberality  toward  foreign  powers,  averting  causes 
of  irritation,  and  with  firmness  maintaining  our  own  rights  and 
honor. 

Since,  however,  it  is  apparent  that  here,  as  in  every  other 
State,  foreign  dangers  necessarily  attend  domestic  difficulties,  I 
recommend  that  adequate  and  ample  measures  be  adopted  for 
maintaining  the  public  defenses  on  every  side.  While,  under 
this  general  recommendation,  provision  for  defending  our  sea- 
coast  line  readily  occurs  to  the  mind,  I  also,  in  the  same  con- 
nection, ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  our  great  lakes  and 


I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  129 

rivers.  It  is  believed  that  some  fortifications  and  depots  of 
arms  and  munitions,  with  harbor  and  navigation  improvements, 
all  at  well-selected  points  upon  these,  would  be  of  great  im- 
portance to  the  national  defense  and  preservation.  I  ask  atten- 
tion to  the  views  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  expressed  in  his 
report,  upon  the  same  general  subject. 

I  deem  it  of  importance  that  the  loyal  regions  of  East  Ten- 
nessee and  Western  North  Carolina  should  be  connected  with 
Kentucky,  and  other  faithful  parts  of  the  Union,  by  railroad. 
I  therefore  recommend,  as  a  military  measure,  that  Congress 
provide  for  the  construction  of  such  road  as  speedily  as  possible. 
Kentucky,  no  doubt,  will  co-operate,  and,  through  her  Legis- 
lature, mdte  the  most  judicious  selection  of  a  line.  The  north- 
ern terminus  must  connect  with  some  existing  railroad ;  and 
whether  the  route  shall  be  from  Lexington  or  Nicholasville  to 
the  Cumberland  Gap,  or  from  Lebanon  to  the  Tennessee  line, 
in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  or  on  some  still  different  line,  can 
easily  be  determined.  Kentucky  and  the  General  Government 
co-operating,  the  work  can  be  completed  in  a  very  short  time  ; 
and  when  done,  it  will  be  not  only  of  vast  present  usefulness, 
but  also  a  valuable  permanent  improvement,  worth  its  cost  in 
all  the  future. 

Some  treaties,  designed  chiefly  for  the  interests  of  com- 
merce, and  having  no  grave  political  importance,  have  been 
negotiated,  and  will  be  submitted  to  the  Senate  for  their  con- 
sideration. 

Although  we  have  failed  to  induce  some  of  the  commercial 
powers  to  adopt  a  desirable  melioration  of  the  rigor  of  mari- 
time war,  we  have  removed  all  obstructions  from  the  way  of 
this  humane  reform,  except  such  as  are  merely  of  temporary 
and  accidental  occurrence. 

I  invite  your  attention  to  the  correspondence  between  Her 
Britannic  Majesty's  Minister,  accredited  to  this  Government, 
and  the  Secretary  of  State,  relative  to  the  detention  of  the 
British  ship  Perthshire,  in  June  last,  by  the  United  States 
steamer  Massaelmsetts,  for  a  supposed  breach  of  the  blockade. 
As  this  detention  was  occasioned  by  an  obvious  misapprehension 
of  the  facts,  and  as  justice  requires  that  we  should  commit  no 
belligerent  act  not  founded  in  strict  right,  as  sanctioned  by 

9-Q 


130  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

public  law,  I  recommend  that  an  appropriation  be  made  to 
satisfy  the  reasonable  demand  of  the  owners  of  the  vessel  for 
her  detention. 

I  repeat  the  recommendation  of  my  predecessor  in  his  an- 
nual message  to  Congress  in  December  last,  in  regard  to  the 
disposition  of  the  surplus  which  will  probably  remain  after  satis- 
fying the  claims  of  the  American  citizens  against  China,  pur- 
suant to  the  awards  of  the  commissioners  under  the  act  of  the 
3d  of  March,  1859.  If,  however,  it  should  not  be  deemed  ad- 
visable to  carry  that  recommendation  into  effect,  I  would  sug- 
gest that  authority  be  given  for  investing  the  principal,  over 
the  proceeds  of  the  surplus  referred  to,  in  good  securities,  with  a 
view  to  the  satisfaction  of  such  other  just  claims  of  c*ir  citizens 
against  China  as  are  not  unlikely  to  arise  hereafter  in  the  course 
of  our  extensive  trade  with  that  empire. 

By  the  act  of  the  5th  of  August  last,  Congress  authorized 
the  President  to  instruct  the  commanders  of  suitable  vessels  to 
defend  themselves  against  and  to  capture  pirates.  This 
authority  has  been  exercised  in  a  single  instance  only.  For  the 
more  effectual  protection  of  our  extensive  and  valuable  com- 
merce, in  the  Eastern  seas  especially,  it  seems  to  me  that  it 
would  also  be  advisable  to  authorize  the  commanders  of  sailing 
vessels  to  recapture  any  prizes  which  pirates  may  make  of 
United  States  vessels  and  their  cargoes,  and  the  consular  courts, 
now  established  by  law  in  Eastern  countries,  to  adjudicate  the 
cases,  in  the  event  that  this  should  not  be  objected  to  by  the 
local  authorities. 

If  any  good  reason  exists  why  we  should  persevere  longer  in 
withholding  our  recognition  of  the  independence  and  sover- 
eignty of  Hayti  and  Liberia,  I  am  unable  to  discern  it.  Un- 
willing, however,  to  inaugurate  a  novel  policy  in  regard  to  them 
without  the  approbation  of  Congress,  I  submit  for  your  consid- 
eration the  expediency  of  an  appropriation  for  maintaining  a 
charge  d'affaires  near  each  of  those  new  States.  It  does  not 
admit  of  doubt  that  important  commercial  advantages  might  be 
secured  by  favorable  treaties  with  them. 

The  operations  of  the  Treasury  during  the  period  which  has 
elasped  since  your  adjournment  have  been  conducted  with  signal 
success.     The  patriotism  of  the  people  has  placed  at  the  disposal 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  131 

of  the  Government  the  large  means  demanded  by  the  public 
exigences.  Much  of  the  national  loan  has  been  taken  by  citi- 
zens of  the  industrial  classes,  whose  confidence  in  their  country's 
faith,  and  zeal  for  their  country's  deliverance  from  present  peril, 
have  induced  them  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  Govern- 
ment the  whole  of  their  limited  acquisitions.  This  fact  imposes 
peculiar  obligations  to  economy  in  disbursement  and  energy  in 
action. 

The  revenue  from  all  sources,  including  loans,  for  the  finan- 
cial year  ending  on  the  30th  of  June,  1861,  was  eighty -six  mill- 
ion eight  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand  nine  hundred  dollars 
and  twenty-seven  cents,  and  the  expenditures  for  the  same 
period,  including  payments  on  account  of  the  public  debt,  were 
eighty-lour  million  five  hundred  and  seventy-eight  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  thirty-four  dollars  and  forty-seven  cents ; 
leaving  a  balance  in  the  treasury  on  the  1st  of  July  of  two  mill- 
ion two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand  and  sixty-five  dollars 
and  eighty  cents.  For  the  first  quarter  of  the  financial  year 
ending  on  the  30th  of  September,  1861,  the  receipts  from  all 
sources,  including  the  balance  of  the  1st  of  July,  were  one  hun- 
dred and  two  million  five  hundred  and  thirty-two  thousand  five 
hundred  and  nine  dollars  and  twenty-seven  cents,  and  the  ex- 
penses ninety-eight  million  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  thou- 
sand seven  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars  and  nine  cents; 
leaving  a  balance  on  the  1st  of  October,  1861,  of  four  million 
two  hundred  and  ninety-two  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
seventy-six  dollars  and  eighteen  cents. 

Estimates  for  the  remaining  three-quarters  of  the  year,  and 
for  the  financial  year  1863,  together  with  his  views  of  ways 
and  means  for  meeting  the  demands  contemplated  by  them,  will 
be  submitted  to  Congress  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  It 
is  gratifying  to  know  that  the  expenditures  made  necessary  by 
the  Rebellion  are  not  beyond  the  resources  of  the  loyal  people, 
and  to  believe  that  the  same  patriotism  which  has  thus  far  sus- 
tained the  Government  will  continue  to  sustain  it  till  peace  and 
Union  shall  again  bless  the  land. 

I  respectfully  refer  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  information  respecting  the  numerical  strength  of  the  army, 
and    for  recommendations  having  in    view  an    increase  of  its 


132  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

efficiency  and  the  well-being  of  the  various  branches  of  the 
service  intrusted  to  his  care.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the 
patriotism  of  the  people  has  proved  equal  to  the  occasion,  and 
that  the  number  of  troops  tendered  greatly  exceeds  the  force 
which  Congress  authorized  me  to  call  into  the  field. 

I  refer  with  pleasure  to  those  portions  of  his  report  which 
make  allusion  to  the  creditable  degree  of  discipline  already  at- 
tained by  our  troops,  and  to  the  excellent  sanitary  condition  of 
the  entire  army. 

The  recommendation  of  the  Secretary  for  an  organization  of 
the  militia  upon  a  uniform  basis  is  a  subject  of  vital  importance 
to  the  future  safety  of  the  country,  and  is  commended  to  the 
serious  attention  of  Congress. 

The  large  addition  of  the  regular  army,  in  connection  with 
the  defection  that  has  so  considerably  diminished  the  number 
of  its  officers,  gives  peculiar  importance  to  his  recommendation 
for  increasing  the  corps  of  cadets  to  the  greatest  capacity  of 
the  Military  Academy. 

By  mere  omission,  I  presume,  Congress  has  failed  to  provide 
chaplains  for  hospitals  occupied  by  voluuteers.  This  subject 
was  brought  to  my  notice,  and  I  was  induced  to  draw  up  the 
form  of  a  letter,  one  copy  of  which,  properly  addressed,  has 
been  delivered  to  each  of  the  persons,  and  at  the  dates  respect- 
ively named  and  stated,  in  a  schedule,  containing  also  the  form 
of  the  letter,  marked  A,  and  herewith  transmitted. 

These  gentlemen,  I  understand,  entered  upon  the  duties 
designated,  at  the  times  respectively  stated  in  the  schedule,  and 
have  labored  faithfully  therein  ever  since.  I  therefore  recom- 
mend that  they  be  compensated  at  the  same  rate  as  chaplains 
in  the  army.  I  further  suggest  that  general  provision  be  made 
for  chaplains  to  serve  at  hospitals,  as  well  as  with  regiments. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  presents  in  detail 
the  operations  of  that  branch  of  the  service,  the  activity  and 
energy  which  have  characterized  its  administration,  and  the  re- 
sults of  measures  to  increase  its  efficiency  and  power.  Such 
have  been  the  additions,  by  construction  and  purchase,  that  it 
may  almost  be  said  a  navy  has  been  created  and  brought  into 
service  since  our  difficulties  commenced. 

Besides  blockading  our  extensive  coast,  squadrons  larger  than 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  133 

ever  before  assembled  under  our  flag  have  been  put  afloat,  and 
performed  deeds  which  have  increased  our  naval  renown. 

I  would  invite  special  attention  to  the  recommendation  of 
the  Secretary  for  a  more  perfect  organization  of  the  navy  by 
introducing  additional  grades  in  the  service. 

The  present  organization  is  defective  and  unsatisfactory,  and 
the  suggestions  submitted  by  the  Department  will,  it  is  believed, 
if  adopted,  obviate  the  difficulties  alluded  to,  promote  har- 
mony, and  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  navy. 

There  are  three  vacancies  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Court — two  by  the  decease  of  Justices  Daniel  and  McLean, 
and  one  by  the  resignation  of  Justice  Campbell.  I  have  so 
far  forborne  making  nominations  to  fill  these  vacancies  for 
reasons  which  I  will  now  state.  Two  of  the  outgoing  judges 
resided  Avithin  the  States  now  overrun  by  revolt ;  so  that  if  suc- 
cessors were  appointed  in  the  same  localities,  they  could  not 
now  serve  upon  their  circuits ;  and  many  of  the  most  competent 
men  there  probably  would  not  take  the  personal  hazard  of  ac- 
cepting to  serve  even  here,  upon  the  Supreme  Bench.  I  have 
been  unwilling  to  throw  all  the  appointments  northward,  thus 
disabling  myself  from  doing  justice  to  the  South  on  the  return 
of  peace ;  although  I  may  remark  that  to  transfer  to  the  North 
one  which  has  heretofore  been  in  the  South  would  not,  with 
reference  to  territory  and  population  be  unjust. 

During  the  long  and  brilliant  judicial  career  of  Judge  Mc- 
Lean his  circuit  grew  into  an  empire — altogether  too  large  for 
any  one  judge  to  give  the  courts  therein  more  than  a  nominal 
attendance — rising  in  population  fi-om  one  million  four  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  and  eighteen  in  1830,  to  six  million  one 
hundred  and  fifty-one  thousand  four  hundred  and  five  in  1860. 

Besides  this,  the  country  generally  has  outgrown  our  present 
judicial  system.  If  uniformity  was  at  all  intended,  the  system 
requires  that  all  the  States  shall  be  accommodated  with  circuit 
courts,  attended  by  supreme  judges,  while,  in  fact,  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Florida,  Texas,  California,  and  Ore- 
gon have  never  had  any  such  courts.  Nor  can  this  well  be 
remedied  without  a  change  in  the  system  ;  because  the  adding 
of  judges  to  the  Supreme  Court,  enough  for  the  accommodation 
of  all  parts  of  the  country,  with  circuit  courts,  would  create  a 


134  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

court  altogether  too  numerous  for  a  judicial  body  of  any  sort. 
And  the  evil,  if  it  be  one,  will  increase  as  new  States  come 
into  the  Union.  Circuit  courts  are  useful,  or  they  are  not  use- 
ful ;  if  useful,  no  State  should  be  denied  them  ;  if  not  useful, 
no  State  should  have  them.  Let  them  be  provided  for  all,  or 
abolished  as  to  all. 

Three  modifications  occur  to  me,  either  of  which,  I  think, 
would  be  au  improvement  upon  our  present  system.  Let  the 
Supreme  Court  be  of  convenient  number  in  every  event. 
Then,  first,  let  the  whole  country  be  divided  into  circuits  of 
convenient  size,  the  supreme  judges  to  serve  in  a  number  of 
them  corresponding  to  their  own  number,  and  independent  cir- 
cuit judges  be  provided  for  all  the  rest.  Or,  secondly,  let  the 
supreme  judges  be  relieved  from  circuit  duties,  and  circuit  judges 
provided  for  all  the  circuits.  Or,  thirdly,  dispense  with  circuit 
courts  altogether,  leaving  the  judicial  functions  wholly  to  the 
district  courts,  and  an  independent  Supreme  Court. 

I  respectfully  recommend  to  the  consideration  of  Congress 
the  present  condition  of  the  statute  laws, with  the  hope  that 
Congress  will  be  able  to  find  an  easy  remedy  for  many  of  the 
inconveniences  and  evils  which  constantly  embarrass  those  en- 
gaged in  the  practical  administration  of  them.  Since  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Government,  Congress  has  enacted  some  five 
thousand  acts  and  joint  resolutions,  which  fill  more  than  six 
thousand  closely  printed  pages,  and  are  scattered  through  many 
volumes.  Many  of  these  acts  have  been  drawn  in  haste  and 
without  sufficient  caution,  so  that  their  provisions  are  often  ob- 
scure in  themselves,  or  in  conflict  with  each  other,  or  at  least  so 
doubtful  as  to  render  it  very  difficult  for  even  the  best  informed 
persons  to  ascertain  precisely  what  the  statute  law  really  is. 

It  seems  to  me  very  important  that  the  statute  laws  should 
be  made  as  plain  and  intelligible  as  possible,  and  be  reduced  to 
as  small  a  compass  as  may  consist  with  the  fullness  and  precision 
of  the  will  of  the  Legislature  and  the  perspicuity  of  its  language. 
This,  well  done,  would,  I  think,  greatly  facilitate  the  labors  of 
those  Avhose  duty  it  is  to  assist  in  the  administration  of  the 
laws,  and  would  be  a  lasting  benefit  to  the  people,  by  placing 
before  them,  in  a  more  accessible  and  intelligible  form,  the  laws 
which  so  deeply  concern  their  interests  and  their  duties. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  135 

I  am  informed  by  some  whose  oplnious  I  respect,  that  all 
the  acts  of  Congress  now  in  force,  and  of  a  permanent  and  gen- 
eral nature,  might  be  revised  and  rewritten,  so  as  to  be  em- 
braced in  one  volume  (or,  at  most,  two  volumes),  of  ordinary 
and  convenient  size.  And  I  respectfully  recommend  to  Con- 
gress to  consider  of  the  subject,  and,  if  my  suggestion  be  ap- 
proved, to  devise  such  plan  as  to  their  wisdom  shall  seem  most 
proper  for  the  attainment  of  the  end  proposed. 

One  of  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  the  present  insurrec- 
tion is  the  entire  suppression,  in  many  places,  of  all  the  ordi- 
nary means  of  administering  civil  justice  by  the  officers  and  in 
the  forms  of  existing  law.  This  is  the  case,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  in  all  the  insurgent  States;  and  as  our  armies  advance 
upon  and  take  possession  of  parts  of  those  States,  the  practical 
evil  becomes  more  apparent.  There  are  no  courts  nor  officers 
to  whom  the  citizens  of  other  States  may  apply  for  the  enforce- 
ment of  their  lawful  claims  against  citizens  of  the  insurgent 
States;  and  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  debt  constituting  such 
claims.  Some  have  estimated  it  as  high  as  two  hundred  million 
dollars,  due,  in  large  part,  from  insurgents,  in  open  rebellion, 
to  loyal  citizens,  who  are,  even  now,  making  great  sacrifices,  ia 
the  discharge  of  their  patriotic  duty,  to  support  the  Government. 

Under  these  circumstances,  I  have  been  urgently  solicited  to 
establish,  by  military  power,  courts  to  administer  summary  jus- 
tice in  such  cases.  I  have  thus  far  declined  to  do  it,  not  be- 
cause I  had  any  doubt  that  the  end  proposed — the  collection  of 
the  debts — was  just  and  right  in  itself,  but  because  I  have  been 
unwilling  to  go  beyond  the  pressure  of  necessity  in  the  unusual 
exercise  of  power.  But  the  powers  of  Congress,  I  suppo.-e,  are 
equal  to  the  anomalous  occasion,  and  therefore  I  refer  the  whole 
matter  to  Congress,  with  the  hope  that  a  plan  may  be  devised 
for  the  administration  of  justice  in  all  such  parts  of  the  insur- 
gent States  and  Territories  as  may  be  under  the  control  of  this 
Government,  whether  by  a  voluntary  return  to  allegiance  and 
order,  or  by  the  power  of  our  arms.  This,  however,  not  to  be 
a  permanent  institution,  but  a  temporary  substitute,  and  to 
cease  as  soon  as  the  ordinary  courts  can  be  re-established  in  peace. 

It  is  important  that  some  more  convenient  means  should  be 
provided,  if  possible,  for   the  adjustment  of  claims  against  the 


136  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Government,  especially  in  view  of  their  increased  number  bv 
reason  of  the  war.  It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  government  to 
render  prompt  justice  against  itself,  iu  favor  of  citizens,  as  it  is 
to  administer  the  same  between  private  individuals.  The  inves- 
tigation and  adjudication  of  claims,  in  their  nature,  belong  to 
the  judicial  department;  besides,  it  is  apparent  that  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress  will  be  more  than  usually  engageil  for  some 
time  to  come  with  great  national  questions.  It  was  intended, 
by  the  organization  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  mainly  to  remove 
this  branch  of  business  from  the  halls  of  Congress ;  but  while 
the  court  has  proved  to  be  an  eifective  and  valuable  means  of 
investigation,  it  in  a  great  degree  fails  to  etiect  the  object  of  its 
creation  for  want  of  power  to  make  its  judgments  tiual. 

Fully  aware  of  the  delicacy,  not  to  say  the  danger,  of  the 
subject,  I  commend  to  your  careful  consideration  whether  this 
power  of  making  judgments  final  may  not  properly  be  given  to 
the  court,  reserving  the  right  of  appeal  on  questions  of  law  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  with  such  other  provisions  as  experience 
may  have  shown  to  be  necessary. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  report  of  the  Postmaster-General,  the 
followina:  being  a  summarv  statement  of  the  condition  of  the 
Department : — 

The  revenue  from  all  sources  during  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1861,  including  the  annual  permanent  appropriation 
of  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  transportation  of 
"free  mail  matter,"  was  nine  million  forty-nine  thousand  two 
hundred  and  ninety-six  dollars  and  forty  cents,  being  about  two 
per  cent  less  than  the  revenue  for  1860. 

The  expenditures  were  thirteen  million  six  hundred  and  six 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty-nine  dollars  and  eleven  cents, 
showing  a  decrease  of  more  than  eight  per  cent  as  compared 
with  those  of  the  previous  year,  and  leaving  an  excess  of  ex- 
penditure over  the  revenue  for  the  last  fiscal  year  of  four  mill- 
ion five  hundred  and  fitly-seven  thousand  fuur  hundred  and 
sixty-two  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents. 

The  gross  revenue  for  the  vear  ending  June  30.  1863,  is  es- 
timated  at  an  increase  of  four  per  cent  on  that  of  1861,  making 
eight  million  six  hundred  and  eighty-three  thousand  dollars,  to 
which  should  be  added  the  earnings  of  the  Department  in  car- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  137 

rying  free  matter,  viz.:  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars,  making 
nine  million  three  hundred  and  eighty-three  thousand  dollars. 

The  total  expenditures  for  1863  are  estimated  at  twelve 
million  five  hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars,  leaving 
an  estimated  deficiency  of  three  million  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  thousand  dollars  to  be  supplied  from  the  Treasury,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  permanent  appropriation. 

The  present  insurrection  shows,  I  think,  that  the  extension 
of  this  District  across  the  Potomac  River,  at  the  time  of  estab- 
lishing the  Capital  here,  was  eminently  wise,  and  consequently 
that  the  relinquishment  of  that  portion  of  it  which  lies  within 
the  State  of  Virginia  was  unwise  and  dangerous.  I  submit  for 
your  consideration  the  expediency  of  regaining  that  part  of  the 
District,  and  the  restoration  of  the  original  boundaries  thereof, 
through  negotiations  with  the  State  of  Virginia. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  with  Ihe  accom- 
panying documents,  exhibits  the  condition  of  the  several  branches 
of  the  public  business  pertaining  to  that  Department.  The  de- 
pressing influences  of  the  insurrection  have  been  specially  felt 
in  the  operations  of  the  Patent  and  General  Land  Offices.  The 
cash  receipts  from  the  sales  of  public  lands  during  the  past 
year  have  exceeded  the  expenses  of  our  land  system  only  about 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  sales  have  been  entirely 
suspended  in  the  Southern  States,  while  the  interruptions  to 
the  business  of  the  country,  and  the  diversions  of  large  num- 
bers of  men  from  labor  to  military  service,  have  obstructed  set- 
tlements in  the  new  States  and  Territories  of  the  Northwest. 

The  receipts  of  the  Patent  OflSce  have  declined  in  nine 
months  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  rendering  a  large 
reduction  of  the  force  employed  necessary  to  make  it  self-sus- 
taining. 

The  demands  upon  the  Pension  OflSce  will  be  largely  in- 
creased by  the  insurrection.  Numerous  applications  for  pen- 
sions, based  upon  the  casualties  of  the  existing  war,  have  already 
been  made.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  many  who  are  now 
upon  the  pension-rolls,  and  in  receipt  of  the  bounty  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, are  in  the  ranks  of  the  insurgent  army,  or  giving 
them  aid  and  comfort.  The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  di- 
rected a  suspension  of  the  payment  of  the  pensions  of  such  per- 


138  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

sons  upon  the  proof  of  their  disloyalty.  I  recommend  that 
Congress  authorize  that  officer  to  cause  the  names  of  such  per- 
sons to  be  stricken  from  the  pension-rolls. 

The  relations  of  the  Government  with  the  Indian  tribes 
have  been  greatly  disturbed  by  the  insurrection,  especially  in 
the  Southern  Superiutendency  and  in  that  of  New  Mexico. 
The  Indian  country  south  of  Kansas  is  in  the  possession  of  in- 
surgents from  Texas  and  Arkansas.  The  agents  of  the  United 
States  appointed  since  the  4th  of  March  for  this  superiutendency 
have  been  unable  to  reach  their  posts,  while  the  most  of  those 
who  were  in  office  before  that  time  have  espoused  the  insurrec- 
tionary cause,  and  assume  to  exercise  the  powers  of  agents  by 
virtue  of  commissions  from  the  insurrectionists.  It  has  been 
stated  in  the  public  press  that  a  portion  of  those  Indians  have 
been  organized  as  a  military  force,  and  are  attached  to  the 
army  of  the  insurgents.  Although  the  Government  has  no 
official  information  upon  this  subject,  letters  have  been  written 
to  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  by  several  prominent 
chiefs,  giving  assurance  of  their  loyalty  to  the  United  States, 
and  expressing  a  wish  for  the  presence  of  Federal  troops  to  pro- 
tect them.  It  is  believed  that  upon  the  repossession  of  the 
country  by  the  Federal  forces,  the  Indians  will  readily  cease  all 
hostile  demonstrations,  and  resume  their  former  relations  to  the 
Government. 

Agriculture,  confessedly  the  largest  interest  of  the  Nation, 
has  not  a  department  nor  a  bureau,  but  a  clerkship  only, 
assigned  to  it  in  the  Government.  While  it  is  fortunate  that 
this  great  interest  is  so  independent  in  its  nature  as  not  to  have 
demanded  and  extorted  more  from  the  Government,  I  respect- 
fully ask  Congress  to  consider  whether  something  more  can  not 
be  given  voluntarily  with  general  advantage. 

Annual  reports  exhibiting  the  condition  of  our  agriculture, 
commerce,  and  manufactures,  would  present  a  fimd  of  informa- 
tion of  great  practical  value  to  the  country.     While  I  make  no 
suggestion  as  to  details,  I  venture  the  opinion   that  an  agricul-  . 
tural  and  statistical  bureau  might  profitably  be  organized. 

The  execution  of  the  laws  for  the  suppression  of  the  African 
slave-trade  has  been  confided  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior. 
It  is  a  subject  of  gratulation  that   the  efforts  which  have  been 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  139 

made  for  the  suppression  of  this  iuhuman  traffic  have  been  re- 
cently attended  with  unusual  success.  Five  vessels  being  fitted 
out  for  the  slave-trade  have  been  seized  and  condemned.  Two 
mates  of  vessels  engaged  in  the  trade,  and  one  person  in  equip- 
ping a  vessel  as  a  slaver,  have  been  convicted  and  subjected  to 
the  penalty  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  one  captain,  taken 
with  a  cargo  of  Africans  on  board  his  vessel,  has  been  convicted 
of  the  highest  grade  of  offense  under  our  laws,  the  punishment 
of  which  is  death. 

The  Territories  of  Colorado,  Dakota,  and  Nevada,  created 
by  the  last  Congress,  have  been  organized,  and  civil  administra- 
tion has  been  inaugurated  therein  under  auspices  especially 
gratifying,  when  it  is  considered  that  the  leaven  of  treason  was 
found  existing  in  some  of  these  new  countries  when  the  Federal 
officers  arrived  there. 

The  abundant  natural  resources  of  these  Territories,  with  the 
security  and  protection  afforded  by  organized  government,  will 
doubtless  invite  to  them  a  large  immigration  when  peace  shall 
restore  the  business  of  the  country  to  its  accustomed  channels. 
I  submit  the  resolutions  of  the  Legislature  of  Ct)lorado,  Avhich 
evidence  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  people  of  the  Territory.  So 
far,  the  authority  of  the  United  States  has  been  upheld  in  all 
the  Territories,  as  it  is  hoped  it  will  be  in  the  future.  I  com- 
mend their  interests  and  defense  to  the  enlightened  and  generous 
care  of  Congress. 

I  recommend  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  Congress  the 
interests  of  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  insurrection  has 
been  the  cause  of  much  suffering  and  sacrifice  to  its  inhabitants, 
and  as  they  have  no  representative  in  Congress,  that  body  should 
not  overlook  their  just  claims  upon  the  Government. 

At  your  late  session  a  joint  resolution  was  adopted  author- 
izing the  President  to  take  measures  for  facilitating  a  proper 
representation  of  the  industrial  interests  of  the  United  States 
at  the  exhibition  of  the  industry  of  all  nations,  to  be  holden  at 
London  in  the  year  1862.  I  regret  to  say  I  have  been  unable 
to  give  personal  attention  to  this  subject — a  subject  at  once  so 
interesting  in  itself,  and  so  extensively  and  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  material  prosperity  of  the  world.  Through 
the  Secretaries  of  State  and  of  the  Interior,  a  plan  or  system 


140  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

has  been  devised   and  partly  matured,  and  which  will  be  laid 
before  you. 

Under  and  by  virtue  of  the  Act  of  Congress,  entitled,  "An 
Act  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes," 
approved  August  6,  1861,  the  legal  claims  of  certain  persons 
to  the  labor  and  service  of  certain  other  persons  have  become 
forfeited;  and  numbers  of  the  latter  thus  liberated  are  already 
dependent  on  the  United  States,  and  must  be  provided  for  in 
some  way.  Besides  this,  it  is  not  impossible  that  some  of  the 
States  will  pass  similar  enactments  for  their  own  benefit  respect- 
ively, and  by  operation  of  which  persons  of  the  same  class 
will  be  thrown  upon  them  for  disposal.  In  such  case  I  recom- 
mend that  Congress  provide  for  accepting  such  persons  from 
such  States  according  to  some  mode  of  valuation,  in  lieu,  pro 
tanto,  of  direct  taxes,  or  upon  some  other  plan  to  be  agreed  on 
with  such  States,  respectively;  that  such  persons,  on  such 
acceptance  by  the  General  Government,  be  at  once  deemed 
free ;  and  that,  in  any  event,  steps  be  taken  for  colonizing  both 
classes  (or  the  one  first  mentioned,  if  the  other  shall  not  be 
brought  into  existence)  at  some  place  or  places  in  a  climate 
congenial  to  them.  It  might  be  well  to  consider,  too,  whether 
the  free  colored  people  already  in  the  United  States  could  not,  so 
far  as  individuals  may  desire,  be  included  in  such  colonization. 

To  carry  out  the  plan  of  colonization  may  involve  the  acquir- 
ing of  territory,  and  also  the  appropriation  of  money  beyond 
that  to  be  expended  in  the  territorial  acquisition.  Having 
practiced  the  acquisition  of  territory  for  nearly  sixty  years, 
the  question  of  Constitutional  power  to  do  so  is  no  longer  an 
open  one  with  us.  The  power  was  questioned  at  first  by  Mr. 
Jefferson,  who,  however,  in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  yielded 
his  scruples  on  the  plea  of  great  expediency.  If  it  be  said  that 
the  only  legitimate  object  of  acquiring  territory  is  to  furnish 
homes  for  white  men,  this  measure  effects  that  object,  for  the 
emigration  of  colored  men  leaves  additional  room  for  white  men 
remaining  or  coming  here.  Mr.  Jefferson,  however,  placed  the 
importance  of  procuring  Louisiana  more  on  political  and  com- 
mercial grounds  than  on  providing  room  for  population. 

On  this  whole  proposition,  including  the  appropriation  of 
money  with  the  acquisition  of  territory,  does  not  the  expediency 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  141 

amount  to  absolute  necessity — that  without  which  the  Govern- 
ment itself  can  not  be  perpetuated? 

The  war  continues.  In  considering  the  policy  to  be  adopted 
for  suppressing'  the  insurrection,  I  have  been  anxious  and 
careful  that  the  inevitable  conflict  for  this  purpose  shall  not 
degenerate  into  a  violent  and  remorseless  revolutionary  struggle. 
I  have  therefore,  in  every  case,  thought  it  proper  to  keep  the 
integrity  of  the  Union  prominent  as  the  primary  object  of  the 
contest  on  our  part,  leaving  all  questions  which  are  not  of 
vital  military  importance  to  the  more  deliberate  action  of  the 
Legislature. 

In  the  exercise  of  my  best  discretion,  I  have  adhered  to  the 
blockade  of  the  ports  held  by  the  insurgents,  instead  of  putting 
in  force,  by  proclamation,  the  law  of  Congress  enacted  at  the 
late  session  for  closing  those  ports. 

So,  also,  obeying  the  dictates  of  prudence  as  well  as  the 
obligations  of  law,  instead  of  transcending,  I  have  adhered  to 
the  act  of  Congress  to  confiscate  property  used  for  insurrec- 
tionary purposes.  If  a  new  law  upon  the  same  subject  shall  be 
proposed,  its  propriety  will  be  duly  considered.  The  Union 
must  be  preserved;  and  hence  all  indispensable  means  must  be 
employed.  We  should  not  be  in  haste  to  determine  that  rad- 
ical and  extreme  measures,  which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well 
as  the  disloyal,  are  indispensable. 

The  Inaugural  Address  at  the  beginning  of  the  Administra- 
tion, and  the  message  to  Congress  at  the  late  special  session, 
were  both  mainly  devoted  to  the  domestic  controversy  out  of 
which  the  insurrection  and  consequent  war  have  sprung.  Noth- 
ing now  occurs  to  add  or  subtract  to  or  from  the  principles  or 
general  purposes  stated  and  expressed  in  those  documents. 

The  last  ray  of  hope  for  preserving  the  Union  peaceably 
expired  at  the  assault  upon  Fort  Sumter ;  and  a  general  review 
of  what  has  occurred  since  may  not  be  unprofitable.  What  was 
painfully  uncertain  then  is  much  better  defined  and  more  dis- 
tinct now;  and  the  progress  of  events  is  plainly  in  the  right 
direction.  The  insurgents  confidently  claimed  a  strong  support 
from  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  and  the  friends  of  the 
Union  were  not  free  from  apprehension  on  the  point.  This, 
however,   was   soon    settled   definitely,  and   on  the   right  side. 


142  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

South  of  the  line,  noble  little  Delaware  led  off  right  from  the 
first.  INIaryland  was  made  to  seem  against  the  Union.  Our 
soldiers  were  assaulted,  bridges  were  burned,  and  railroads  torn 
up  witljin  her  limits,  and  we  were  many  days,  at  one  time,  with- 
out the  ability  to  bring  a  single  regiment  over  her  soil  to  the 
Capital.  Now  her  bridges  and  railroads  are  repaired  and  open 
to  the  Government;  she  already  gives  seven  regiments  to  the 
cause  of  the  Union,  and  none  to  the  enemy;  and  her  people,  at 
a  regular  election,  have  sustained  the  Union  by  a  larger  majority 
and  a  larger  aggregate  vote  than  they  ever  before  gave  to  any 
candidate  or  any  question.  Kentucky,  too,  for  some  time  in 
doubt,  is  now  decidedly,  and,  I  think,  unchangeably,  ranged  on 
tlie  side  of  the  Union.  Missouri  is  comparatively  quiet,  and, 
I  believe,  can  not  again  be  overrun  by  the  insurrectionists. 
These  three  States  of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri, 
neither  of  which  would  promise  a  single  soldier  at  first,  have 
now  an  aggregate  of  not  less  than  forty  thousand  in  the  field 
for  the  Union  ;  while  of  their  citizens  certainly  not  more  than 
a  third  of  that  number,  and  they  of  doubtful  whereabouts  and 
doubtful  existence,  are  in  arms  against  it.  After  a  somewhat 
bloody  struggle  of  months,  winter  closes  on  the  Union  people  of 
Western  Virginia,  leaving  them  masters  of  their  ow'n  country. 

An  insurgent  force  of  about  fifteen  hundred,  for  months 
dominating  the  narrow  peninsular  region,  constituting  the  coun- 
ties of  Accomack  and  Northampton,  and  known  as  the  eastern 
shore  of  Virginia,  together  with  some  contiguous  parts  of  Mary- 
land, have  laid  down  their  arms;  and  the  people  there  have 
renewed  their  allegiance  to  and  accepted  the  protection  of  the 
old  flag.  This  leaves  no  armed  insurrectionist  north  of  the 
Potomac  or  east  of  the  Chesapeake. 

Also,  we  have  obtained  a  footing  at  each  of  the  isolated  points, 
on  the  southern  coast,  of  Hatteras,  Port  Royal,  Tybee  Island 
near  Savannah,  and  Ship  Island ;  and  we  likewise  have  some 
general  accounts  of  popular  movements  in  behalf  of  the  Union 
in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee. 

These  things  demonstrate  that  the  cause  of  the  Union  is 
advancing  steadily  and  certaiidy  southward. 

Since  ^our  last  adjournment  Lieutenant-General  Scott  has 
retired  from   the  head  of  the  army.     During  his  long  life  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  143 

Nation  has  not  been  unmindful  of  Ins  merit ;  yet  on  calling  to 
mind  how  faithfully,  ably,  and  brilliantly  he  has  served  the 
country,  from  a  time  far  back  in  our  history,  when  few  of  the 
now  living  had  been  born,  and  thenceforward  continually,  I  can 
not  but  think  we  are  still  his  debtors.  I  submit,  therefore,  for 
your  consideration  what  further  mark  of  recognition  is  due  to 
hira  and  to  ourselves  as  a  grateful  people. 

With  the  retirement  of  General  Scott  came  the  Executive 
duty  of  appointing  in  his  stead  a  General-in-Chief  of  the  array. 
It  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  neither  in  council  nor  coun- 
try was  there,  so  far  as  I  know,  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  proper  person  to  be  selected.  The  retiring  chief  repeatedly 
expressed  his  judgment  in  favor  of  General  McClellan  for  the 
position,  and  in  this  the  Nation  seemed  to  give  a  unanimous 
concurrence.  The  designation  of  General  McClellan  is,  there- 
fore, in  considerable  degree,  the  selection  of  the  country  as  well 
as  of  the  Executive ;  and,  hence,  there  is  better  reason  to  hope 
there  will  be  given  him  the  confidence  and  cordial  support  thus, 
by  fair  imi)lication,  promised,  and  without  which  he  can  not, 
with  so  full  efficiency,  serve  the  country. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  bad  general  is  better  than  two 
good  ones;  and  the  saying  is  true,  if  taken  to  mean  no  more 
tlian  that  an  army  is  better  directed  by  a  single  mind,  though 
inferior,  than  by  two  superior  ones  at  variance  and  cross- 
purposes  with  each  other. 

And  the  same  is  true  in  all  joint  operations  wherein  those 
engaged  can  have  none  but  a  common  end  in  view,  and  can 
differ  only  as  to  the  choice  of  means.  In  a  storm  at  sea  no  one 
on  board  can  wish  the  ship  to  sink,  and  yet,  not  unfrequently, 
all  go  down  together  because  too  many  will  direct  and  no  single 
mind  can  be  allowed  to  control. 

It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is  largely,  if 
not  exclusively,  a  war  upon  the  first  principle  of  popular  gov- 
ernment— the  rights  of  the  people.  Conclusive  evidence  of  this 
is  found  in  the  most  grave  and  maturely  considered  public  docu- 
ments, as  well  as  in  the  general  tone  of  the  insurgents.  In 
those  documents  we  find  the  abridgment  of  the  existing  right 
of  suffrage  and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  all  right  to  partici- 
pate in  the  selection  of  public   officers,  except  the  legislative, 


144  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

boldly  advocated,  with  labored  arguments  to  prove  that  large 
control  of  the  people  in  government  is  the  source  of  all  political 
evil.  Monarchy  itself  is  sometimes  hinted  at  as  a  possible  refuge 
from  the  power  of  the  people. 

In  my  present  position  I  could  scarcely  be  justified  were  I 
to  omit  raising  a  warning  voice  against  this  approach  of  return- 
ing despotism. 

It  is  not  needed  nor  fitting  here  that  a  general  argument 
should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions ;  but  there  is 
one  point,  with  its  connections,  not  so  hackneyed  as  most  others, 
to  which  I  ask  a  brief  attention.  It  is  the  eflTort  to  place  capital 
on  an  equal  footing  with,  if  not  above  labor,  in  the  structure  of 
government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is  available  only  in  con- 
nection Avith  capital ;  that  nobody  labors  unless  somebody  else, 
owning  capital  somehow,  by  the  use  of  it  induces  him  to  labor. 
This  assumed,  it  is  next  considered  whether  it  is  best  that  cap- 
ital shall  hire  laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to  work  by  their 
own  consent,  or  hiy  them,  and  drive  them  to  it  without  their 
consent.  Having  proceeded  so  far,  it  is  naturally  concluded 
that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers,  or  what  we  call  slaves. 
And  further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever  is  once  a  hired  laborer 
is  fixed  in  that  condition  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital  and  labor  as 
assumed  ;  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free  man  being  fixed 
for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  laborer.  Both  these  assump- 
tions are  false,  and  all  inferences  from  them  are  groundless. 

Labor  is  prior  to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital  is 
only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor 
had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  de- 
serves much  the  higher  consideration.  Capital  has  its  rights, 
which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any  other  rights.  Nor 
is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and  probably  always  will  be,  a  re- 
lation between  labor  and  capital  producing  mutual  benefits. 
The  error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  community 
exists  within  that  relation.  A  few  men  own  capital,  and  that 
few  avoid  labor  themselves,  and  with  their  capital  hire  or  buy 
another  few  to  labor  for  them.  A  large  majority  belong  to 
neither  class — neither  work  for  others  nor  have  others  working 
for  them.     In  most  of  the  Southern  States  a  majority  of  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  145 

whole  people,  of  all  colors,  are  neither  slaves  nor  masters,  while 
in  the  Northern  States  a  large  majority  are  neither  hirers  nor 
hired.  Men,  with  their  families — wives,  sons,  and  daughters — 
work  for  themselves,  on  their  farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in 
their  shops,  taking  the  whole  product  to  themselves,  and  ask- 
ing no  favors  of  capital,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired  la- 
borers or  slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  con- 
siderable number  of  persons  mingle  their  own  labor  with  capital ; 
that  is,  they  labor  with  their  own  hands,  and  also  buy  or  hire 
others  to  labor  for  them  ;  but  this  is  only  a  mixed  and  not  a 
distinct  class.  No  principle  stated  is  disturbed  by  the  existence 
of  this  mixed  class. 

Again,  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not,  of  necessity, 
any  such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being  fixed  to  that  con- 
dition for  life.  Many  independent  men  everywhere  in  these 
States,  a  few  years  back  in  their  lives,  were  hired  laborers. 
The  prudent,  penniless  beginner  in  the  world,  labors  for  wages 
awhile,  saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land  for  him- 
self, then  labors  on  his  own  account  another  while,  and  at 
length  hires  another  new  beginner  to  help  him.  This  is  the  just 
and  generous  and  prosperous  system,  which  opens  the  way  to 
all,  gives  hope  to  all,  and  consequent  energy  and  progress  and 
improvement  of  condition  to  all.  No  men  living  are  more 
worthy  to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up  from  poverty ; 
none  less  inclined  to  take  or  touch  aught  which  they  have  not 
honestly  earned.  Let  them  beware  of  surrendering  a  political 
power  which  they  already  possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered, 
will  surely  be  used  to  close  the  door  of  advancement  against 
such  as  they,  and  to  fix  new  disabilities  and  burdens  upon  them, 
till  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost. 

From  the  first  taking  of  our  national  census  to  the  last 
are  seventy  years ;  and  we  find  our  population  at  the  end  of 
the  period  eight  times  as  great  as  it  was  at  the  beginning. 
The  increase  of  those  other  things  which  men  deem  desirable 
has  been  even  greater.  We  thus  have  at  one  view  what  the 
popular  principle,  applied  to  government  through  the  machin- 
ery of  the  States  and  the  Union,  has  produced  in  a  given  time, 
and  also  what  if  firmly  maintained,  it  promises  for  the  future. 
There  are   already  among  us  those  who,  if  the  Union    be   pre- 

lO — Q 


146  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

served,  will  live  to  see  it  contain  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions. 
The  struggle  oj  to-day  is  not  altogether /or  to-day;  it  is  for  a 
vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance  on  Providence  all  the  more 
firm  and  earnest,  let  us  proceed  in  the  great  task  which  events 
have  devolved  upon  us. 

In  this  message  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  deem  it  neces- 
sary to  give  even  a  general  history  of  events  since 
the  last  session  of  Congress.  The  war  continued, 
and  the  main  object  was  the  furthering  of  the  means 
to  bring  it  to  a  close  in  a  way  to  preserve  the  in- 
tegrity and  honor  of  the  Union.  He  refers  to  his 
former  message  and  his  inaugural  address  for  the 
principles  of  his  policy  which  he  yet  saw  no  need  of 
greatly  modifying.  He  calls  attention  to  the  act  of 
the  6th  of  August  providing  for  the  confiscation  of 
the  property  of  rebels,  and  indicates  the  necessity  of 
some  arrangement  for  taking  care  of  the  negroes  that 
were,  under  that  act,  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
anthorities,  and  suggests  colonization  as  the  proper 
outlet  for  these  people.  Otherwise  the  slavery  ques- 
tion is  not  mentioned.  But  after  saying  that  her  had 
conformed  to  the  provision  of  Congress  for  confiscat- 
ing only  such  property  as  was  used  in  forwarding  the 
purposes  of  rebellion,  he  makes  the  very  significant 
remark  that,  "  if  a  new  law  on  the  same  subject  shall 
be  proposed,  its  propriety  will  be  duly  considered. 
The  Union  must  be  preserved ;  and  hence  all  indis- 
pensable means  must  be  employed.  We  should  not 
be  in  haste  to  determine  that  radical  and  extreme 
measures,  which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well  as  the 
disloyal,  are  indispensable."     There  need  be  no  cavil 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  147 

about  the  purport  of  this  brief  pointer.  One  false 
doctrine  of  the  rebels  and  their  friends,  the  President 
stops  to  assail  at  some  length,  that  there  would  be  no 
labor  without  capital  drawing  it  out  in  some  way,  or 
owning  it  and  thereby  acquiring  the  more  sure  and 
absolute  right  of  driving  it.  Here,  as  in  most  other 
things,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  peculiarly  fit  to  represent  the 
great  mass  of  the  people.  This  quality  was,  per- 
haps, the  one  above  all  others  rendering  him  most 
suited  to  the  place  he  occupied.  Upon  this  feeling 
for  the  lowly,  to  some  extent,  was  based  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's recommendation  to  Congress  of  the  recognition 
of  the  independence  of  Liberia  and  Hayti,  and  the 
establishment  of  ministerial  relations  with  them  as 
sovereign  States.  It  may  not  be  worth  while  here  to 
take  note  of  the  wisdom  or  folly  of  such  a  recom- 
mendation. 

This  session  of  Congress  ended  on  the  17th  of 
July,  1862,  and  although  its  main  work  was  in  sup- 
port of  the  President  and  the  army,  some  of  its  acts 
were  of  unusual  importance,  and  one  of  them  espe- 
cially marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  na- 
tional history.  Acts  were  passed  in  favor  of  the 
Pacific  Railroad,  for  the  furthering  of  settlements  on 
the  public  lands,  for  the  punishment  of  polygamy,  for 
the  return  of  letters  of  value  to  the  writers  when  sent 
for  any  cause  to  the  "  dead-letter  oflBce,"  and  for  the 
recognition  of  Hayti  and  Liberia.  At  this  session  pro- 
vision was  also  made  for  the  issue  of  legal-tender 
notes,  the  basis  of  the  famous  and  successful  Green- 
back plan  recommended  by  Mr.  Chase. 


148  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  Democratic  Congressmen  now  began  a  con- 
stant and  persistent  opposition  to  what  they  styled 
"arbitrary  and  unconstitutional"  arrests  of  suspected 
or  actual  sympathizers  and  aiders  and  abettors  in  the 
Rebellion,  residing  in  the  Free  States,  and  the  border 
Slave  States  held  under  the  authority  of  the  Govern- 
ment. These  men  took  the  erroneous  and  pitiable 
position  that  whatever  the  Goverment  did  toward 
crushing  the  Rebellion  in  the  South,  it  must  do  noth- 
ing to  that  end  in  the  loyal  North  among  those  who 
were  doing  what  they  could  to  clog  its  way  to  suc- 
cess. During  the  special  session  of  July,  1861,  this 
session,  and  every  subsequent  one,  this  annoying  and 
pestilential  work  went  on.  Some  of  these  misguided 
men  even  became  so  bold  as  to  declare  openly  in  their 
places  in  Congress  that  the  "  Southern  Confederacy  " 
should  be  acknowledged  ;  and  no  opportunity  was 
ever  lost  by  them  to  abuse,  slander,  or  misrepresent 
the  Administration,  and  criticise  and  condemn  its  war 
and  general  policy.  Some  of  these  men  were  repri- 
manded and  censured,  and  a  few  of  them,  when  en- 
durance had  ceased  to  be  a  virtue,  were  expelled, 
but  in  the  main  they  went  unmolested,  and  never 
restetl  from  their  evil  work  and  evil  influence. 

The  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  be- 
came a  never-ending  theme  among  these  men  for 
misrepresenting  the  tendencies  of  the  Administration, 
and  disturbino;  the  wronsj-minded  and  weak.  The 
cry  about  this  writ  in  America  never  has  been  any- 
thing but  political  quackery  and  demagogism.  Pa- 
triots  and   honest   men,  men   whose   deeds   were    in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  149 

harmony  with  their  righteous  thoughts  never  had 
need  to  care,  and  never  did  care,  whether  this  writ 
was  active  or  dead.  Nothing  but  the  dogma  of  State 
sovereignty,  which  furnished  the  apology  for  seces- 
sion, was  ever  carried  to  the  height  of  this  habeas 
corpus  folly. 

In  the  summer  of  1861,  a  case  under  this  writ 
was  made  a  test  of  the  course  of  the  Executive.  One 
John  Merryman,  of  Baltimore,  guilty,  no  doubt,  of  all 
the  charges  against  him,  was  confined  at  Fort 
McHenry.  Merryman  applied  to  the  Chief  Justice, 
Roger  B.  Taney,  whose  name  does  not,  perhaps,  stand 
clear  in  the  history  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  on  account  of  his  peculiar  connection 
with  the  Dred  Scott  case,  which  no  good  opinion  of 
his  countrymen  can  ever  erase,  for  a  hearing  under 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  writ  was  granted, 
but  General  George  Cadwallader,  then  in  command 
at  Fort  McHenry,  not  only  refused  to  take  any  note 
of  this  act  of  the  Chief  Justice,  but  also  declined  to 
appear  in  his  own  person  to  answer  for  contempt 
before  that  official.  About  his  inability  to  set  up 
his  claim  to  authority  over  the  Executive  in  the  ex- 
ertion of  a  power  which  never  would  have  been  em- 
ployed in  times  of  peace,  the  Chief  Justice  said  : — 

"  In  relation  to  the  present  return,  I  propose  to  say 
that  the  marshal  has  legally  the  power  to  summon  out  the 
jposse  comitatus  to  seize  and  bring  into  court  the  party 
named  iu  the  attachment;  but  it  is  apparent  he  will 
be  resisted  in  the  discharge  of  that  duty  by  a  force  noto- 
riously superior  to  the  posse  comitatus,  and  such  being  the 


150  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

case,  the  Court  has  no  power  under  the  law  to  order  the 
necessary  force  to  compel  the  appearance  of  the  party.  If, 
however,  he  was  before  the  Court,  it  would  then  impose 
the  only  punishment  it  is  empowered  to  inflict — that  by 
fine  and  imprisonment." 

The  Judge  put  on  file  a  full  exposition  of  his 
views  on  the  subject,  holding  on  the  main  issue  the 
doctrine  which  gave  the  backing  to  the  Northern 
sympathizers,  and  by  many  was  taken  as  evidence 
of  his  standing  with  them : — 

"  1.  The  President,  under  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States,  can  not  suspend  the  privilege  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  nor  authorize  any  military  officer  to 
do  so. 

"  2.  A  military  officer  has  no  right  to  arrest  and  detain 
a  person,  not  subject  to  the  rules  and  articles  of  war,  for  an 
offense  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  except  in  and 
of  the  judicial  authority  and  subject  to  its  control;  and  if 
the  party  is  arrested  by  the  military,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
officer  to  deliver  him  over  immediately  to  the  civil  author- 
ity, to  be  dealt  with  according  to  law." 

The  whole  tenor  of  the  old  Justice's  review  of 
the  case,  if  it  does  not  show  his  sympathy  with  the 
Rebellion,  or  with  its  friends  in  the  North,  and  his 
disposition  to  set  up  a  troublesome  opposition  to  the 
administration  of  affairs  greater  than  could  possibly 
come  under  his  jurisdiction  at  the  most  critical  peiiod 
of  the  national  career,  certainly  shows  that  he  was 
unable,  from  age  or  other  causes,  to  comprehend  such 
a  crisis. 

Attorney-General  Bales,  who  was  at  least  as  well 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  151 

qualified  as  tlie  Chief  Justice  to  give  an  opinion  on 
this  matter,  asked  the  questions : — 

"  1.  In  the  present  time  of  a  great  and  dangerous  in- 
surrection, has  the  President  the  discretionary  power  to 
cause  to  be  arrested  and  held  in  custody  persons  known 
to  have  criminal  intercourse  with  the  insurgents,  or  per- 
sons against  whom  there  is  probable  cause  for  suspicion 
of  such  criminal  complicity? 

"  2.  In  such  cases  of  arrest,  is  the  President  justified 
in  refusing  to  obey  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  issued  by  a 
court  or  a  judge,  requiring  him  or  his  agent  to  produce 
the  body  of  the  prisoner,  and  show  the  cause  of  his  cap- 
tion and  detention,  to  be  adjudged  and  disposed  of  by 
such  court  or  judge?" 

And  then  affirmed  them,  supporting  his  position 
with  a  frank  and  careful  argument.  As  an  apology 
for  the  folly  of  giving  any  opinion,  the  Attorney- 
General  wrote : — 

"  Whatever  I  have  said  about  the  suspension  of  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  has  been  said  in 
deference  to  the  opinions  of  others,  and  not  because  I  my- 
self thought  it  necessary  to  treat  of  that  subject  at  all  in 
reference  to  the  present  posture  of  our  national  affairs. 
For,  not  doubting  the  power  of  the  President  to  capture 
and  hold  by  force  insurgents  in  open  arms  against  the 
Government,  and  to  arrest  and  imprison  their  suspected 
accomplices,  I  never  thought  of  first  suspending  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  any  more  than  I  thought  of  first  suspend- 
ing the  writ  of  replevin  before  seizing  arms  and  munitions 
destined  for  the  enemy." 

Horace  Binney  and  the  learned  Theophilus  Par- 
sons, who  had  no  superiors,  and  few  if  any  equals,  in 


152  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Constitutional  law,  expressed  views  wholly  averse  to 
those  of  the  Chief  Justice.  In  his  pamphlet  on  the 
subject,  Mr.  Binney  says  : — 

"  It  is  further  objected,  that  this  is  a  most  dangerous 
power.  It  is,  fortunately,  confined  to  most  dangerous 
times.  In  such  times  the  people  generally  are  willing, 
and  are  often  compelled  to  give  up,  for  a  season,  a  portion 
of  their  freedom  to  preserve  the  rest;  and  fortunately, 
again,  it  is  that  portion  of  the  people,  for  the  most  part, 
who  like  to  live  on  the  margin  of  disobedience  to  the 
laws,  whose  freedom  is  most  in  danger.  The  rest  are 
rarely  in  want  of  a  habeas  corpus.^' 

Certainly.  Why  should  an  honest,  fair,  and  just 
man  be  so  occupied  about  matters  only  concerning 
the  dishonest,  and  which  are  seldom  likely  to  affect 
or  disturb  the  honest? 

Judge  Parsons,  in  his  opinion  on  the  habeas  corpus 
and  martial  law,  said : — 

"T'he  first  and  most  important  question  is,  Who  may 
decide  when  the  exigency  occurs,  and  who  may,  if  it  oc- 
curs, declare  martial  law?  On  this  point  I  have  my- 
self no  doubt.  The  clause  on  this  subject  is  contained  in 
the  first  article  of  the  Constitution,  and  this  article  relates 
principally  to  Congress.  Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt 
that  Congress  may,  when  the  necessity  occurs,  suspend  the 
right  to  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or,  which  is  the  same 
thing,  declare  or  authorize  martial  law.  The  question  is, 
Has  the  President  this  power?  The  Constitution  does  not 
expressly  give  this  power  to  any  department  of  Govern- 
ment, nor  does  it  expressly  reserve  it  to  Congress,  although, 
in  the  same  article,  it  does  make  this  express  reservation 
as  to  some  of  the  provisions  contained  in  the  article.     This 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  153 

may  be  a  mere  accidental  omission,  but  it  seems  to  me 
more  reasonable  and  more  consonant  with  the  principles 
of  legal  interpretation  to  infer  from  it  an  absence  of  in- 
tention to  confine  it  to  Congress.  And  I  am  confirmed 
in  this  opinion  by  the  nature  of  the  case. 

"  The  very  instances  specified  as  those  in  which  the 
right  to  habeas  corpus  may  be  suspended  (invasion  and  re- 
bellion) are  precisely  those  in  which  the  reasons  for  doing 
so  may  come  suddenly,  the  necessity  of  determination  be 
immediate,  and  a  certainty  exist  that  the  suspension  will 
be  useless,  and  the  whole  mischief  which  the  suspension 
might  prevent  take  place  if  there  be  any  delay.  To  guard 
against  the  suspension  by  limiting  the  cases,  as  is  done, 
seems  to  me  wise;  to  obstruct  it  by  requiring  the  delay 
necessarily  arising  from  legislative  action  would  seem  to 
be  unreasonable.  It  is  true  that  my  construction  gives  to 
the  President,  in  the  two  cases  of  rebellion  and  invasion, 
a  vast  power;  but  so  is  all  military  power.  It  is  a  vast 
power  to  send  into  a  rebellious  district  fifteen  thousand 
soldiers,  as  Washington  did,  whose  duty  it  would  be  to 
meet  the  rebels,  and,  if  necessary,  kill  as  many  as  they 
could.  But  it  was  a  power  which  belonged  to  him,  of 
necessity,  as  President;  and  so,  I  think,  did  the  power  of 
martial  law.  If  it  did  not,  then,  when  his  troops  had 
captured  the  armed  rebels  whom  they  were  sent  to  subdue, 
the  nearest  magistrate  who  could  issue  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  might  have  summoned  the  officer  having  them  in 
charge  to  bring  them  before  him,  and  might  have  liberated 
them  at  once  to  fight  again,  and  this  as  often  as  they  were 
captured,  until  a  law  could  be  passed  by  Congress. 

"If  the  power  belongs  to  the  President,  he  may  exer- 
cise it  at  his  discretion,  when  either  invasion  or  rebellion 
occurs,  subject,  however,  to  two  qualifications.  One,  a 
universal  one,  applicable  to  his  exercise  of  every  power. 
If  he  abuses  it,  or  exercises  it  wrongfully,  he  is  liable  to 
impeachment.     The   other   is  more  a  matter  of  discretion 


154  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

or  propriety.  I  suppose  that  he  would  of  course  report 
his  doings  in  such  a  matter  to  Congress  when  he  could, 
and  be  governed  by  their  action. 

**My  conclusion  is,  therefore,  that  in  case  of  invasion 
from  abroad  or  rebellion  at  home,  the  President  may  de- 
clare, or  exercise  or  authorize,  martial  law  at  his  discretion." 

It  may  now  be  briefly  said  that  the  President 
had  first  authorized  General  Scott,  on  the  27th  of 
April,  1861,  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  on 
the  line  of  communication  between  Washington  and 
Philadelphia,  if  he  saw  that  the  safety  of  the  country 
demanded  it.  Early  in  July  the  entire  military  line 
to  New  York  was  brought  under  this  order.  In  May 
the  commander  on  the  Florida  coast  was  authorized 
to  suspend  this  writ.  In  October,  1861,  General 
McClellan  authorized  General  Banks  to  suspend  the 
habefis  corpus,  if  he  saw  fit,  in  carrying  out  the  order 
to  arrest  the  members  of  the  Legislature.  And  this 
form  of  appointment  was  given  to  military  governors 
in  the  following  year  : — 

"  War  Department,  Washington  City,  D.  C,  \ 

"  May  19,  1862.  j 

"  Sm, — You  are  hereby  appointed  Military  Governor 
of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  with  authority  to  exercise 
and  perform  within  the  limits  of  that  State  all  and  singu- 
lar the  powers,  duties,  and  functions  pertaining  to  the  office 
of  Military  Governor  (including  the  power  to  establish  all 
necessary  offices  and  tribunals,  and  suspend  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus)  during  the  pleasure  of  the  President,  or 
until  the  loyal  inhabitants  of  that  State  shall  organize  a 
civil  government  in  conformity  with  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

"  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  AVar." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  155 

The  two  following  orders  were  subsequently  pro- 
mulgated covering  this  whole  subject,  mainly,  during 

the  war  : — 

"  Washington,  September  24th. 

"  Whereas,  It  has  become  necessary  to  call  into  serv- 
ice, not  only  volunteers,  but  also  portions  of  the  militia 
of  the  State  by  draft,  in  order  to  suppress  the  insurrection 
existing  in  the  United  States,  and  disloyal  persons  are  not 
adequately  restrained  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  law 
from  hindering  this  measure,  and  from  giving  aid  and 
comfort  in  various  ways  to  the  insurrection  : 

"  Now,  therefore,  be  ft  ordered  : 

"First.  That  during  the  existing  insurrection,  and  as  a 
necessary  measure  for  suppressing  the  same,  all  rebels  and 
insurgents,  their  aiders  and  abettors,  within  the  United 
States,  and  all  persons  discouraging  volunteer  enlistments, 
resisting  military  drafts,  or  guilty  of  any  disloyal  practice 
affording  aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebels  against  the  author- 
ity of  the  United  States,  shall  be  subject  to  martial  law, 
and  liable  to  trial  and  punishment  by  courts-martial  or 
military  commission. 

"  Second.  That  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  suspended 
in  respect  to  all  persons  arrested,  or  who  are  now,  or  here- 
after during  the  Rebellion  shall  be,  imprisoned  in  any 
fort,  camp,  arsenal,  military  prison,  or  other  place  of  con- 
finement, by  any  military  authority,  or  by  the  sentence  of 
any  court-martial  or  military  commission. 

"  In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"  Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-fourth 
day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty- 
seventh.  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  By  the  President : 

"  Wm.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State." 


156  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

'*  Whereas,  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has 
ordained  that  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
shall  not  be  suspended  unless  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or 
invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it ;   and 

"Whereas,  a  rebellion  was  existing  on  the  3d  day 
of  March,  1863,  which  Rebellion  is  still  existing;  and 

"  Whereas,  by  a  statute  which  was  approved  on  that 
day  it  was  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Represent- 
atives of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  that 
during  the  present  insurrection  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  whenever  in  his  judgment  the  public  safety  may  re- 
require,  is  authorized  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  in  any  case  throughout  the  United  States, 
or  any  part  thereof;  and 

"Whereas,  in  the  judgment  of  the  President  the  pub- 
lic safety  does  require  that  the  privilege  of  the  said  writ 
shall  now  be  suspended  throughout  the  United  States  in 
the  cases  where,  by  the  authority  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  military,  naval,  and  civil  officers  of  the 
United  States,  or  any  of  them,  hold  persons  under  their 
command  or  in  their  custody,  either  as  prisoners  of  war, 
spies,  or  aiders  or  abettors  of  the  enemy,  or  officers, 
soldiers,  or  seamen  enrolled  or  drafted  or  mustered  or 
enlisted  in  or  belonging  to  the  land  or  naval  forces  of  the 
United  States,  or  as  deserters  therefrom,  or  otherwise 
amenable  to  the  military  law  or  the  Rules  and  Articles 
of  War,  or  the  rules  or  regulations  prescribed  for  the  mili- 
tary or  naval  services  by  authority  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  or  for  resisting  a  draft,  or  for  any  other 
offense  against  the  military  or  naval  service : 

"Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  make  known 
to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  is  suspended  throughout  the  United 
States  in  the  several  cases  before  mentioned,  and  that  this 
suspension    will  continue  throughout   the  duration  of  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  157 

said  Rebellion,  or  until  this  proclamation  shall,  by  a  sub- 
sequent one  to  be  issued  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  be  modified  or  revoked.  And  I  do  hereby  require 
all  magistrates,  attorneys,  and  other  civil  officers  within 
the  United  States,  and  all  officers  and  others  in  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  services  of  the  United  States,  to  take  dis- 
tinct notice  of  this  suspension,  and  to  give  it  full  effect, 
and  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  conduct  and 
govern  themselves  accordingly  and  in  conformity  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  of  Congress 
in  such  case  made  and  provided. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be 
affixed,  this  15th  day  of  September,  1863,  and  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America 
the  eighty-eighth.  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  By  the  President : 
"  Wm.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State." 

On  the  5th  day  of  July  in  the  following  year, 
owing  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  Kentucky,  the  Presi- 
dent issued  a  special  proclamation  suspending  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  in  that  State.  On  the  6th  of  March, 
1862,  Mr.  Lincoln  sent  this  message  to  Congress  : — 

Felloav-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : — 
I   recommend   the   adoption  of  a  joint  resolution  by   your 
honorable  bodies,  which  shall  be  substantially  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with 
any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery, 
giving  to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State  in 
its  discretion,  to  compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and 
private,  produced  by  such  change  of  system. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does  not  meet 
the  approval  of  Congress  and  the  country,  there  is  the  end ; 
but  if  it  does  command  such  approval,  I  deem  it  of  importance 
that  the  States  and  people  immediately  interested  should  be  at 
once  distinctly  notified  of  the  fact,  so  that  they  may  begin  to 


158  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

consider  whether  to  accept  or  reject  it.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment would  find  its  highest  interest  in  such  a  measure  as  one 
of  the  most  efficient  means  of  self-preservation.  The  leaders 
of  the  existing  insurrection  entertain  the  hope  that  this  Gov- 
ernment will  ultimately  be  forced  to  acknowledge  the  inde- 
pendence of  some  part  of  {he  disaflfected  region,  and  tliat  all 
the  Slave  States  north  of  such  part  will  then  say  :  "The  Union 
for  which  we  have  struggled  being  already  gone,  we  now 
choose  to  go  with  the  Southern  section."  To  deprive  tliem  of 
this  hope  substantially  ends  the  Rebellion,  and  the  initiation  of 
emancipation  completely  deprives  them  of  it  as  to  all  the  States 
initiating  it.  The  point  is  not  that  all  the  States  tolerating 
slavery  would  very  soon,  if  at  all,  initiate  emancipation,  but 
that,  while  the  oflfer  is  equally  made  to  all,  the  more  Northern 
shall,  by  such  initiation,  make  it  certain  to  the  more  Southern 
that  in  no  event  will  the  former  ever  join  the  latter  in  their 
projjosed  confederacy.  I  say  "  initiation,"  because,  in  my  judg- 
ment, gradual,  and  not  sudden  emancipation,  is  better  for  all. 
In  the  mere  financial  or  pecuniary  view,  any  member  of  Con- 
gress, with  the  census-tables  and  treasury  reports  before  him, 
can  readily  see  for  himself  how  very  soon  the  current  expendi- 
tures of  this  war  would  purchase,  at  fair  valuation,  all  the  slaves 
in  any  named  State.  Such  a  proposition  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Government  sets  up  no  claim  of  a  right  by  Federal 
authority  to  interfere  with  slavery  within  State  limits,  referring, 
as  it  does,  the  absolute  control  of  the  subject  in  each  case  to 
the  State  and  its  people  immediately  interested.  It  is  proposed 
as  a  matter  of  perfectly  free  choice  with  them. 

In  the  annual  message  last  December  I  thought  fit  to  say  : 
"The  Union  must  be  preserved;  and  hence  all  indispensable 
means  must  be  employed."  I  said  this  not  hastily  but  deliber- 
ately. War  has  been  made,  and  continues  to  be  an  indis- 
pensable means  to  this  end.  A  practical  reacknowledgment  of 
the  national  authority  would  render  the  war  unnecessary,  and 
it  would  at  once  cease.  If,  however,  resistance  continues,  the 
war  must  also  continue,  and  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  all  the 
incidents  which  may  attend  and  all  the  ruin  which  may  follow 
it.  Such  as  may  seem  indispensable,  or  may  obviously  promise 
great  efficiency  toward  ending  the  struggle,  must  and  will  come. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  159 

The  proposition  now  made,  though  an  offer  only,  I  hope  it 
may  be  esteemed  no  offense  to  ask  whether  the  pecuniary  con- 
sideration tendered  would  not  be  of  more  value  to  the  States 
and  private  persons  concerned  than  are  the  institutions  and 
property  in  it,  in  the  present  aspect  of  affairs. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  resolution 
would  be  merely  initiatory,  and  not  within  itself  a  practical 
measure,  it  is  recommended  in  the  hope  that  it  would  soon  lead 
to  important  practical  results.  In  full  view  of  my  great  re- 
sponsibility to  my  God  and  to  my  country,  I  earnestly  beg  the 
attention  of  Congress  and  the  people  to  the  subject. 


160  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— CONGRESS  IN  THE  WINTER 
OF  1861  AND  THE  SPRING  OF  1862— PROPOSITION  TO 
THE  BORDER  SLAVE-STATES  — THE  CONFISCATION 
ACT  — EMANCIPATION  IN  THE  DISTRICT  — A  GRAND 
MORAL  PICTURE. 

THIS  startling  proposition  from  the  President  was 
variously  received  throughout  the  country  and 
ill  Congress.  The  border  Slave-State  "conserva- 
tives "  were  opposed  to  it ;  the  Democrats,  who  were 
mainly  pro-slavery,  were  opposed  to  it,  except  those 
of  them  who  had  become  thoroughly  identified  with 
the  war  party;  and  the  Abolitionists  of  the  straitest 
sect  were  opposed  to  it.  But  m;my  Abolitionists, 
like  Horace  Greeley,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  loyal 
people  looked  upon  it  kindly,  and  both  at  home  and 
abroad  it  was  viewed  as  a  magnanimous  proposition 
from  the  President,  who  yet  held  to  his  original  de- 
sire to  preserve  the  Union  without  interfering  with 
slavery  in  the  States,  and  who  in  view  of  the  prob- 
able necessities  of  the  future,  now  hoped  to  induce 
the  States  most  concerned  to  institute  a  policy  which 
would  lead  to  the  highest  possible  advantage  to  them 
under  the  uncertain  circumstances,  and  to  which  the 
Free  States  might  be  inclined  to  give  their  assent. 
There  was  the  usual  false,  foolish,  and  immoral  talk 
in  the  newspapers  and  among  politicians  about  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  161 

whole  question  of  slavery  being  a  thing  concerning 
nobody  but  slaveholders,  but  the  States  having 
slavery,  and  the  only  thing  for  which  the  President 
received  any  praise  vv^as  the  fact  of  his  leaving  the 
matter  vv^ith  them  to  choose  or  reject  as  they  saw  fit. 
Still  the  general  opinion  in  the  border  Slave  States 
was  that  the  President  had  made  a  wrong  step,  that 
when  the  Slave  States  wanted  Congress  to  aid  them 
in  such  an  enterprise,  they  could  speak  for  them- 
selves. There  was  also  the  sentiment  that  this  grad- 
ual emancipation  message  was  a  feeler  and  educator, 
that  it  was  designed  to  prepare  the  country  gradually 
for  the  inevitable  fate  of  the  "institution  ;"  that  the 
message  declared  substantially  :  "  This  is  your  last 
chance ;  I  wish  to  be  fair  with  you,  to  do  the  best  I 
can  for  you;  I  can  not  turn  aside  the  current  of 
events ;  I  prefer  to  hold  to  my  original  policy ;  I  still 
hope  the  way  may  be  wide,  and  clear,  and  satisfac- 
tory ;  but  what  is  not  regarded  as  indispensable  to- 
day may  become  indispensable  to-morrow;  uncom- 
pensated emancipation,  immediate  and  general  eman- 
cipation, may  become  a  necessity  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  Union." 

A  few  of  the  Republicans  in  Congress,  notably 
John  Hickman  and  Thaddeus  Stevens,  then  both  in 
the  House  from  Pennsylvania,  assailed  this  message 
with  considerable  severity,  treating  it  as  beneath  the 
dignity  and  ability  of  a  full-grown  man  at  such  an 
important  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the  Nation. 

On  the  11th  of  March,  after  some  discussion,  the 
House  passed  the  President's  resolution  by  a  vote  of 

II— Q 


162  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

eighty-nine  yeas  against  thirty-one  nays.  On  the 
20th  the  resolution  as  passed  in  the  House  was  taken 
up  in  the  Senate,  and  seven  days  afterwards  adopted 
by  thirty-two  against  ten  votes.  This  joint  resolution 
was  then  signed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  10th  of  April. 
Of  course,  this  whole  matter  fell  as  a  dead  letter,  as 
none  of  the  border  Slave  States  took  substantially 
any  note  of  it.  None  of  them  desired  to  give  up 
slavery  on  any  terms. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  deeply  in  earnest  about  the  mat- 
ter, however,  and  did  what  he  could  to  induce  the 
border  States  to  take  some  favorable  steps  in  response 
to  the  act  of  Congress.  While  the  resolution  was 
under  consideration,  about  the  10th  of  March,  he  in- 
vited the  border  Slave-State  Congressmen  to  meet  him 
at  the  White  House  for  a  frank  conversation  touching 
the  meaning  and  design  of  his  compensation  message. 
Some  of  these  men  attended  the  meeting,  and  the 
President  answered  fully  the  many  questions  put  to 
him;' but  nothing  came  of  this  well-meant  effort. 
Early  in  April  a  committee  was  appointed  in  the 
House  to  report  some  plan  for  bringing  about  co- 
operation in  the  border  Slave  States  in  the  proposi- 
tion of  the  President.  And  again,  by  invitation, 
most  of  the  Congressmen  from  those  States  met  at 
the  Executive  Mansion  on  the  12th  of  July  when  Mr. 
Lincoln  read  to  them  this  address : — 

"  Gentlemen, — After  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
now  near,  I  shall  have  no  opportunity  of  seeing  you  for- 
several  months.  Believing  that  you  of  the  border  States 
hold   more  power  for  good  than   any  other  equal  number 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  163 

of  members,  I  feel  it  a  duty  which  I  can  not  justifiably 
waive,  to  make  this  appeal  to  you. 

"  I  intend  no  reproach  or  complaint  when  I  assure  you 
that,  in  my  opinion,  if  you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution 
in  the  Gradual  Emancipation  Message  of  last  March,  the 
war  would  now  be  substantially  ended.  And  the  plan 
therein  proposed  is  yet  one  of  the  most  potent  and  swift 
means  of  ending  it.  Let  the  States  which  are  in  rebellion 
see  definitely  and  certainly  that  in  no  event  will  the  States 
you  represent  ever  join  their  proposed  Confederacy,  and 
they  can  not  much  longer  maintain  the  contest.  But  you 
can  not  divest  them  of  their  hope  to  ultimately  have  you 
with  them  so  long  as  you  show  a  determination  to  per- 
petuate the  institution  within  your  own  States.  Beat  them 
at  elections,  as  you  have  overwhelmingly  done,  and,  nothing 
daunted,  they  still  claim  you  as  their  own.  You  and  I 
know  what  the  lever  of  their  power  is.  Break  that  lever 
before  their  faces,  and  they  can  shake  you  no  more  forever. 

"  Most  of  you  have  treated  me  with  kindness  and  con- 
sideration, and  I  trust  you  will  not  now  think  I  improp- 
erly touch  what  is  exclusively  your  own,  when  for  the 
sake  of  the  whole  country,  I  ask,  '  Can  you,  for  your 
States,  do  better  than  to  take  the  course  I  urge?'  1l>\8- 
cardmg  punctilio  and  maxims  adapted  to  more  manageable 
times,  and  looking  only  to  the  unprecedentedly  stern  facts 
of  our  case,  can  you  do  better  in  any  possible  event  ?  You 
prefer  that  the  Constitutional  relations  of  the  States 
to  the  Nation  shall  be  practically  restored  without  dis- 
turbance of  the  institution ;  and,  if  this  were  done,  my 
whole  duty  in  this  respect,  under  the  Constitution  and  ray 
oath  of  office,  would  be  performed.  But  it  is  not  done, 
and  we  are  trying  to  accomplish  it  by  war.  The  incidents 
of  the  war  can  not  be  avoided.  If  the  war  continues 
long,  as  it  must,  if  the  object  be  not  sooner  attained,  the 
institution  in  your  States  will  be  extinguished  by  mere  fric- 
tion and  abrasion — by  the  mere  incidents  of  the  war.     It 


164  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

will  be  gone,  and  you  will  have  nothing  valuable  in  lieu  of  it. 
Much  of  its  value  is  gone  already.  How  much  better  for 
you  and  for  your  people  to  take  the  step  which  at  once 
shortens  the  war  and  secures  substantial  compensation  for 
that  which  is  sure  to  be  wholly  lost  in  any  other  event! 
How  much  better  to  thus  save  the  money  which  else  we 
sink  forever  in  the  war !  How  much  better  to  do  it  while 
we  can,  lest  the  war  erelong  render  us  pecuniarily  unable 
to  do  it !  How  much  better  for  you  as  seller,  and  the 
Nation  as  buyer,  to  sell  out  and  buy  out  that  \vithout 
which  the  war  could  never  have  been,  than  to  sink  both 
the  thing  to  be  sold  and  the  price  of  it  in  cutting  each 
other's  throats! 

"  I  do  not  speak  of  emancipation  at  once^  but  of  a  de- 
cision at  once  to  emancipate  gradually.  Room  in  South 
America  for  colonization  can  be  obtained  cheaply  and  in 
abundance,  and  when  numbers  shall  be  large  enough  to  be 
company  and  encouragement  for  one  another,  the  freed 
people  will  not  be  so  reluctant  to  go. 

*'  I  am  pressed  with  a  difficulty  not  yet  mentioned,  one 
which  threatens  division  among  those  who,  united,  are 
none  too  strong.  An  instance  of  it  is  known  to  you. 
General  Hunter  is  an  honest  man.  He  was,  and  I  hope 
still  is,  my  friend.  I  valued  him  none  the  less  for  his 
agreeing  with  me  in  the  general  wish  that  all  men  every- 
where could  be  freed.  He  proclaimed  all  men  free  within 
certain  States,  and  I  repudiated  the  proclamation.  He  ex- 
pected more  good  and  less  harm  from  the  measure  than  I 
could  believe  would  follovv.  Yet,  in  repudiating  it,  I  gave 
dissatisfaction,  if  not  offense,  to  many  whose  support  the 
country  can  not  afford  to  lose.  And  this  is  not  the  end 
of  it.  The  pressure  in  this  direction  is  still  upon  me, 
and  is,  increasing.  By  conceding  what  I  now  ask  you  can 
relieve  me,  and,  much  more,  can  relieve  the  country  in 
this  important  point. 

"Upon  these  considerations  I  have  again  begged  your 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  165 

attention  to  the  message  of  March  last.  Before  leaving 
the  Capitol,  consider  and  discuss  it  among  yourselves.  You 
are  patriots  and  statesmen,  and  as  such  I  pray  you  consider 
this  proposition ;  and  at  the  least  commend  it  to  the  con- 
sideration of  your  States  and  people.  As  you  would  per- 
petuate popular  government  for  the  best  people  in  the 
world,  I  beseech  you  that  you  do  in  nowise  omit  this. 
Our  common  country  is  in  great  peril,  demanding  the 
loftiest  views  and  boldest  action  to  bring  a  speedy  relief. 
Once  relieved,  its  form  of  government  is  saved  to  the 
world,  its  beloved  history  and  cherished  memories  are 
vindicated,  and  its  happy  future  fully  assured  and  rendered 
inconceivably  grand.  To  you,  more  than  to  any  others, 
the  privilege  is  given  to  assure  that  happiness  and  swell 
that  grandeur,  and  to  link  your  own  names  therewith 
forever." 

To  this  Address  two  written  replies  were  made, 
the  minority  mainly  agreeing  with  the  President,  and 
the  majority,  while  taking  quite  dissimilar  views,  sug- 
gested that  when  Congress  made  certain  provisions 
as  to  the  pecuniary  aid  proposed,  the  States  con- 
cerned might  consider  the  uncalled-for  proposition. 
Horace  Maynard,  of  Tennessee,  and  J.  B.  Henderson, 
of  Missouri,  made  separate  reports,  fully  concurring 
with  the  views  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

A  sweeping  confiscation  act  was  passed  at  this 
session,  and  approved  by  the  President.  The  act 
had  an  emancipation  feature,  and  provided  for  the 
organization  and  employment  of  the  freed  slaves  of 
rebels,  or  other  persons  of  African  descent,  as  the 
President  might  deem  best  for  the  public  good.  A 
clause  of  the  act  also  authorized  the  President  to 
issue  a  proclamation  of  pardon  and  amnesty,  on  such 


166  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

conditions  as  he  deemed  advisable  to  persons  engaged 
in  the  rebellion  against  the  National  authority. 

In  furthering  the  purposes  of  this  important 
measure,  the  President  issued  this  proclamation  a  few 
days  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress : — 

"  In  pursuance  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress, entitled,  'An  Act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish 
treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  property 
of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,'  approved  July  17,  1862, 
and  which  Act,  and  the  joint  resolution  explanatory  thereof, 
are  herewith  published,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  to  and  warn  all  persons 
within  the  contemplation  of  said  sixth  section  to  cease  par- 
ticipating in,  aiding,  countenancing,  or  abetting  the  exist- 
ing Rebellion,  or  any  rebellion,  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  return  to  their  proper  alle- 
giance to  the  United  States,  on  pain  of  the  forfeitures  and 
seizures  as  within  and  by  said  sixth  section  provided. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"  Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-fifth 
day  of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

"  By  the  President :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"William  H.  Sewaed,  Secretary  of  State." 

Of  more  importance,  hov^ever,  than  this  act  for- 
ever freeing  the  slaves  of  rebels  actually  engaged  in 
war  upon  the  United  States,  was  the  measure  pro- 
viding for  the  total  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  Immediately  after  the  assembling  of 
Congress  Henry  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  introduced 
in  the  Senate  a  resolution  referring  to  the  Committee 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  167 

on  the  District  of  Columbia  certain  matters  pertain- 
ing to  the  slaves,  among  which  was  one  inquiring  into 
the  expediency  of  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District. 
And  a  few  days  afterwards,  December  16,  1861,  he 
introduced  a  bill  for  the  immediate  abolition  of  all 
the  slaves  in  the  District. 

This  bill,  as  finally  passed  March  16,  1862,  pro- 
vided that  all  slaves  in  the  District  be  forever  free 
from  that  date,  liable  only  as  other  persons  to  lose 
their  freedom  on  account  of  the  commission  of  crime ; 
that  a  commission  be  appointed  to  hear  the  facts  and 
declare  upon  the  remuneration  of  loyal  masters,  a 
million  of  dollars  being  appropriated  for  that  purpose, 
and  three  hundred  dollais  fixed  as  the  average  price 
to  be  allowed  for  each  slave ;  that  no  allowance  be 
made  for  those  brought  into  the  District  after  the 
passage  of  the  act;  that  no  witness  should  be  ex- 
Kjluded  on  account  of  color;  that  no  secret  removal 
of  slaves  from  the  District  should  be  allowed;  that 
papers  from  the  Government  should  be  given  to  each, 
indicating  his  manumission;  that  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  should  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  col- 
onizing these  freed  slaves,  if  they  chose  to  leave  the 
country;  and,  finally,  a  supplemental  clause  providing 
that  all  slaves  brought  into  the  District  at  any  time, 
and  employed  or  hired  there,  should  also  be  free. 

After  a  long  and  free  discussion,  such  us  had 
never  before  occurred  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  on  the  3d  of  April, 
by  a  vote  of  twenty-nine  to  fourteen,  the  bill  passed 
in  the  Senate.     After  a  brief  and  cutting  debate  in 


168  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  House  the  bill  was  concurred  in  on  the  11th, 
by  that  branch,  in  a  vote  of  ninety-two  to  thirty- 
eight,  and  approved  by  the  President  on  the  16th  of 
April,  1862. 

The  Constitution  provides  that  Congress  shall  have 
the  exclusive  right  to  legislate  for  the  District,  and 
does  not  limit  its  scope  or  power.  And  yet,  in  the 
discussions  on  this  measure,  men,  denominated  "states- 
men," loudly  proclaimed  that  Congress  had  no  power 
to  pass  such  an  act,  or  legislate  at  all  on  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  slaves  in  the  District.  Although  this 
was  not  an  unheard-of  freak  in  the  handling  of  this 
maddening  theme,  the  grounds  mainly  advanced  since 
1835  by  the  opponents  of  emancipation  had  been 
unjust  interference  with  an  established  domestic  insti- 
tution, injustice  to  the  surrounding  Slave  States,  and 
matters  of  policy.  Although  for  thirty  years  Con- 
gress had  been  almost  incessantly  memorialized  by 
"fanatical"  and  philanthropic  people  to  remove 
slavery  from  the  seat  of  GoA^ernment,  no  very  decided 
advance  in  that  direction  had  been  made,  and  up  to 
the  very  day  on  which  the  chains  were  broken  from 
these  three  thousand  blacks  no  political  party  could 
have  succeeded  at  the  polls,  which  was  not  believed 
to  be  safe  and  sound  as  to  non-interference  with 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  was  one 
of  the  standing  tests,  both  of  men  and  parties.  It 
had  always  been  held  by  Shive  States  and  the  sup- 
porters of  slavery,  that  the  States,  in  the  manner 
provided  by  their  constitutions,  had  sole  power,  in 
their  boundaries,  to   legislate  for  the  destruction  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  169 

slavery ;  and  it  never  could  have  been  held  with  the 
least  grain  of  reason  that  Congress,  having  sole  legis- 
lative power  in  the  District,  could  not  do  as  it  pleased 
with  its  affairs.  And  even  now,  the  folly  of  such  a 
position  was  too  plain  to  attract  much  attention. 
James  A.  Bayard,  one  of  the  leading  opponents  of 
the  measure,  candidly  said  on  the  point,  in  the  face 
of  his  associates : — 

"  I  concede,  without  the  slightest  reservation,  that  the 
authority  of  the  General  Government  over  the  District  of 
Columbia  is  precisely  the  same  as  the  authority  of  a  State 
over  its  territory ;  that  no  Constitutional  objection  can 
arise  to  the  action  of  Congress  in  abolishing  slavery  in 
this  District,  other  than  those  that  could  be  made  within 
the  boundaries  of  a  State  under  similar  provisions  of  a 
State  constitution." 

The  cause  of  slavery  had  been  greatly  strength- 
ened and  benefited  by  the  existence  of  the  "  institu- 
tion" in  the  District  of  Columbia.  So  far  as  the 
District  was  concerned,  slavery  was  a  national  insti- 
tution, all  the  States  supporting  it  equally,  and  all 
tolerating  alike  the  very  hard  slave  code  of  Maryland 
which  applied  to  it.  While  it  was  well  known,  the 
world  over,  that  the  North  had  submitted  to  the 
continuance  of  slavery  in  the  District  as  a  peace- 
offering,  as  a  political  necessity;  nevertheless,  the 
institution  acquired  thereby  an  air  of  respectability 
it  could  not  have  had  otherwise.  The  South  was 
well  aware  of  this  fact,  and  it  never  entertained  any 
compunctions  on  account  of  the  disgust,  mortification, 
and  suffering  of  the  North.     It  not   only  demanded 


170  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  continuance  and  support  of  slavery  in  the  Dis- 
trict, but  also  imperiously  forbade  any  discussion  of 
the  subject,  or  even  the  expression  of  a  wish  or  a 
sentiment  respecting  it.  It  was  long  the  only  sub- 
ject forbidden  in  the  Halls  of  Congress.  The  seal 
of  silence  and  submission,  at  least,  was  placed  upon 
every  mouth.  No  party  could  break  this  seal,  and 
the  individual  who  was  bold  enough  to  do  so  was 
accursed  forever. 

The  fiery  balls  thrown  at  Fort  Sumter  had  cut 
the  Gordian  knot,  and  the  wills  and  lips  of  men  went 
loose ;  the  obligations  of  the  past  were  gone ;  the 
crack  of  the  first  rebel  gun  announced  the  inevitable 
doom  of  slavery.  Freedom  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia was  the  first  substantial  fruit  of  secession ;  it 
was  the  greatest  moral  achievement  of  the  American 
Congress,  and  the  names  of  those  who  accomplished 
it  will  live  in  the  history  of  human  progress  when 
the  heroes  of  many  a  battle-field  shall  be  forgotten 
among  men. 

At  no  time  had  slavery  been  so  offensive  in  the 
District,  and  the  need  for  some  action  to  correct  it, 
been  so  imperative,  perhaps,  as  since  the  inauguration 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  The  Republican  Administration  at 
the  outset  seemed  to  live  in  constant  fear  of  doing 
something  about  slavery  which  would  belie  its  pre- 
tensions and  promises.  To  fight  the  Rebellion  and 
not  touch  slavery  was  its  ambition;  and  for  a  time 
these  two  tasks  were  equally  difficult.  While  Mr. 
Lincoln  believed  slavery  to  be  morally  and  socially 
wrong  when  he  entered  on  the  Presidency,  there  is 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  171 

no  evidence  that  he  had  any  desire  to  become  a  martyr 
in  behalf  of  negro  freedom  and  elevation.  All  this 
was  a  matter  of  growth  with  him.  It  came  with  the 
development  of  events.  Nothing*  more  clearly  dem- 
onstrates this  fact  than  the  ill-treatment  and  suffering 
of  the  negroes  in  the  District  for  the  year  preceding 
their  emancipation,  and  that,  in  some  sense,  by  his 
sanction. 

Ward  H.  Lamon,  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Illinois 
followers,  who  had  come  to  Washington  to  help  him, 
to  grow  fat  under  his  favors,  was  made  Marshal  of  the 
District.  Lamon  was  of  pro-slavery  origin  and  pre- 
dilections, and  he  made  it  one  of  his  chief  duties  to 
gather  up  negroes,  bond  and  free,  and  confine  them, 
as  runaway  slaves,  in  the  old  Washington  jail.  The 
iniquity  of  his  business,  as  well  as  the  revolting  con- 
dition of  the  prison,  after  a  time  became  known,  nnd 
so  loud  was  the  cry  against  the  whole  thing  that  the 
President  took  upon  himself  the  responsibility,  in 
advance  of  the  emancipation  legislation  of  Congress, 
to  order  the  Marshal  to  empty  the  jail,  and  turn  his 
attention  to  more  important  things  than  arresting  and 
holding  these  doubtful  slaves  of  rebel  masters. 

Some  few  things  now  remained  to  be  done  to 
'  start  these  freed  people  with  the  least  possible 
degree  of  fairness  in  the  race  of  life.  Only  a  week 
or  two  after  the  passage  of  the  Emancipation  Bill, 
James  W.  Grimes,  of  Iowa,  introduced  in  the 
Senate  a  bill  to  provide  for  the  education  of  colored 
children  in  Washington.  The  bill  was  amended,  and 
passed    in   both   Houses,   receiving    the    President's 


172  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

approval  on  the  21st  of  May,  1862.  Later  in  the 
same  session  another  bill,  supplementary,  was  passed, 
and  became  a  law.  In  the  spring  of  1863  the  educa- 
tional interests  of*  the  freed  district  negroes  were 
pushed  farther  on,  and  finally,  in  the  summer  of 
1864,  provisions  were  made  for  their  having  an  equal 
share  of  all  the  privileges  afforded  by  law  to  the 
white  children  of  the  district. 

During  this  session  a  bill  was  introduced,  and, 
after  a  thorough  discussion  and  very  material  amend- 
ments, was  passed  in  both  Houses,  and  signed  by  the 
President  on  the  19th  of  June,  1862,  forbidding 
slavery  or  involuntary  servitude  in  all  territory  of 
the  United  States  then  existing,  or  that  might  in 
the  future  be  acquired.  This  bill  was  virtually  re- 
enacting  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  it  placed  slavery 
in  the  Nation  where  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  political 
associates  desired  it  to  be,  and  beyond  which,  it  is 
believed,  as  has  been  fully  shown  in  preceding 
volumes  of  this  work,  the  authors  of  the  Ordinance 
of  1787  and  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  never 
designed  it  to  go,  the  States  where  it  then  was,  and 
where  they  believed  and  hoped  it  would  in  time  die 
out.  Like  every  other  step  in  this  slavery  legisla- 
tion the  border  State  Congressmen  and  their  Demo- 
cratic friends  opposed  this  bill  with  great  violence 
and  all  their  ingenuity.  But  it  was  a  vain  struggle. 
In  the  passage  of  this  bill  the  new  dogma  that  Con- 
gress had  no  authority  to  legislate  about  slavery  in 
the  Territories  was  set  aside  forever,  and  the 
Administration    party    laid    claim    to    another    step 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  173 

toward  returning  to  the  primitive  standards  of  the 
Government. 

One  other  important  matter  relating  to  slavery 
came  up  during  this  session.  This  was  the  capture 
and  return  of  fugitive  slaves  by  the  army.  From 
the  outset  this  had  been  a  disagreeable  and  difficult 
matter,  and  there  was  exhibited  a  very  decided  dis- 
position at  Washington,  and  among  soldiers,  to  avoid 
any  responsibility.  The  Administration  and  the  Re- 
publican party  leaders  were  anxious  to  live  up  to 
their  pretensions  and  promises  as  to  slavery,  and  it 
was  strongly  hoped  that  the  thing  which  everybody 
dreaded  to  touch  would  some  way  take  care  of 
itself;  and  so  little  was  the  true  nature  of  the  case 
understood  that  it  was  generally  believed  the  only 
thing  required  was  to  let  slavery  alone  and  it  would 
take  care  of  itself.  This  great  mistake  was  too  soon 
painfully  apparent;  and  every  responsible  officer 
began  to  deal  with  a  subject  that  would  not  be  let 
alone,  as  suited  his  own  inclination.  There  was  no 
uniformity,  and  the  authorities  at  Washington  seemed 
anxious  to  get  on  without  a  policy.  General  Butler 
at  Fortress  Monroe  furnished  the  first  example  of  a 
fearless  disposition  to  meet  the  case  with  a  reason- 
able and  just  plan.  Three  slaves  came  to  him  who 
were  about  to  be  sent  by  their  rebel  master  to  work 
in  the  trenches  in  South  Carolina.  He  thereupon  set 
them  to  work  in  his  own  camp.  With  characteristic 
rebel  folly  and  inconsistency  an  agent  applied  for  the 
release  of  these  slaves,  saying :  "  Do  you  mean  to  set 
aside  your  Constitutional  obligations  ?" 


174  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

To  this  stupendous  "  cheek  "  the  General  replied  :- 
"Virginia    passed    an    ordinance    of   secession,    and 
claims  to  be  a  foreign  country.     I  am  under  no  Con- 
stitutional obligations  to  a  foreign  country." 

"  You  say  we  can  not  secede,  and  so  you  can  not 
consistently  retain  them,"  said  this  fellow. 

To  this  the  ever-ready  Ben  replied:  "You  con- 
tend yon  have  seceded,  and  you  can  not  consistently 
claim  them.  You  are  using  negroes  on  your  bat- 
teries.    I  shall  detain  them  as  contraband  of  war." 

But  General  Butler  was  not  at  ease  on  the  sub- 
ject. Scores  of  these  slaves,  whose  masters  had  left 
their  homes  to  engage  in  the  war  against  the  Govern- 
ment, flocked  to  his  camp.  The  Administration  had 
no  "  contraband "  policy.  His  letters  to  General 
Scott,  and  then  to  Secretary  Cameron,  furnished  the 
basis  of  a  policy  which  did  for  a  time  apparently 
satisfy  the  demands  of  the  case.  But  the  Secretary's 
plan  involved  the  ultimate  necessity  of  an  army  of 
registration  clerks,  and  was  never  put  into  general 
practice. 

Buell,  Hooker,  McClellan,  Patterson,  Mansfield, 
Halleok,  and  others  took  a  course  in  dealing  with 
the  fugitives  which  best  subserved  the  interests  of 
the  rebel  masters ;  while  Doubleday,  Hunter,  Fre- 
mont, Wool,  Curtis,  McDowell,  and  others  pursued  a 
more  humane  course,  and,  wisely  looking  upon  the 
negro  as  an  element  of  strength  on  the  side  of  the 
Rebellion,  treated  him  in  that  light.  But  there  was 
a  vast  amount  of  ill-feeling  about  the  matter  in  the 
army.     The  sentiment   against  the  negro's  carrying 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  175 

a  musket  was  for  a  time  very  decided,  and  some 
regiments  would  not  tolerate  a  negro  in  their  camps, 
let  alone  in  their  ranks.  Anything  that  he  could  do, 
but  be  a  slave,  seemed  to  be  viewed  as  making  him 
equal  to  the  white  man.  And  the  lower  a  Northern 
soldier  went  in  the  scale  of  Christian  refinement  and 
moral  and  intellectual  culture,  the  deeper  was  his 
dread  and  hatred  of  the  negro.  This  feeling  to  some 
extent  extended  to  the  whole  white  race  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  is  yet  little  less  active  than  it  was  at 
that  or  any  other  period.  Those  termed  "  laboring 
men,"  and  the  lowest  of  them,  were,  however,  the 
most  noisy  and  despotic  about  the  least  sign  of  favor 
toward  the  colored  man.  To  place  him  in  labor 
competition  was  the  highest  crime,  and  implied  a 
conspiracy  against  the  business  or  life  of  the  capital- 
ist, manufacturer,  or  contractor  who  was  bold  enough 
to  try  the  experiment. 

With  this  class  of  men,  moral  and  intellectual 
qualities  were  not  taken  into  account  in  estimating 
equality  or  superiority.  The  former  condition  of 
servitude,  and  the  odor  and  color  of  the  skin,  were 
the  only  bases  of  comparison.  Where  such  principles 
and  such  multifarious  practices  controlled  men  in  and 
out  of  the  army,  it  became  the  authorities  of  the 
Government  to  move  with  caution. 

Congress  recognized  the  difficulties  under  which 
the  Administration  and  army  labored,  and  exhibited 
some  disposition,  in  the  special  session  of  the  summer 
of  1861,  to  provide  a  remedy.  But  many  of  the 
stoutest-hearted  Republicans  showed  great  timidity 


176  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

in  approaching  the  subject,  and  nothing  was  done. 
By  the  meeting  of  the  next  reguhir  session  a  differ- 
ent feeling  was  apparent,  and  bills  were  at  once 
before  each  House  providing  that  "all  officers  or 
persons  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  are  prohibited  from  employing  any  of  the 
forces  under  their  respective  commands  for  the  pur- 
pose of  returning  fugitives  from  service  or  labor,  who 
may  have  escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due,  and  any  officer 
who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court-martial  of 
violating  this  article,  shall  be  dismissed  from  the 
service." 

The  border  State  members  and  their  Democratic 
friends  put  forth  all  their  ingenuity  to  defeat  this 
bill,  but  to  little  effect.  Still  it  was  shorn  of  all  its 
original  and  unnecessarily  strong  features,  and  only 
the  main  point  retained.  An  effort  was  made  to  ex- 
clude Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri 
from  the  operations  of  the  bill,  but  even  this  was 
not  successful.  The  vote  on  the  bill  in  the  House 
stood  eighty-three  to  forty-two ;  and  in  the  Senate 
twenty-nine  to  nine.  On  the  13th  of  March,  1862, 
the  act  became  a  law  by  the  approval  of  the  Presi- 
dent. Thus  a  very  troublesome  matter  was  disposed 
of,  and  another  mortal  stab  inflicted  upon  the  old 
enemy  of  the  Union. 

Little  more  was  left  for  Congress  to  do  on  this 
momentous  question.  The  next  blow  was  to  come 
from  the  Administration.  The  progress  of  events 
was  fast  preparing  the  country  for  it. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  177 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

1862  — WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION  —  THE  TRENT  CASE — 
FOREIGN  AFFAIRS  — THE  HAND  OF  OLD  ENGLAND- 
COURSE  OF  THE  "RULING  CLASS"  —  THE  TRIPLE 
ALLIANCE— AMERICA  AND  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE 
TO  BE  CRUSHED— MAXIMILIAN— TIME,  THE  AVENGER. 

ON  the  8th  of  November,  1861,  Captain  Charles 
Wilkes,  commander  of  the  United  States  war- 
steamer  San  Jacinto,  stopped  the  British  merchant- 
vessel  Trent,  between  Havana  and  St.  Thomas,  and 
forcibly  took  from  her  James  M.  Mason  and  John 
Slidell,  with  their  two  secretaries.  These  men,  with 
what  signs  of  authority  they  could  get  from  Jefferson 
Davis,  were  on  their  way  to  England  and  France  to 
represent  the  "Southern  Confederacy,"  and  this  fact 
was  well  known  to  the  British  consul  at  Havana, 
and  the  captain  of  the  Trent  and  her  British  pas- 
sengers, who  were  all  warm  in  the  interest  of  the 
Rebellion.  A  month  before,  indeed,  these  men  had 
been  carried  out  of  Charleston  Harbor  by  the  Theo- 
dora, a  British  blockade-runner. 

Wilkes  proceeded  to  New  York,  from  whence  the 
prisoners  were  conveyed  to  Fort  Warren,  in  Boston 
Harbor.  This  affair  went  into  diplomatic  history  as 
the  "  Trent  Case,"  and  for  a  time  created  a  great 
deal  of  excitement  and  bluster  on  both  sides  of  the 

12— Q 


178  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Atlantic.  In  England  there  was  a  strong  desire  that 
it  should  be  made  the  cause  of  immediate  war  with 
the  United  States,  and  no  effort  was  spared  to  goad 
the  Ministry  to  assume  a  hostile  attitude.  In  the 
South  it  was  regarded  as  an  "especial  providence" 
in  favor  of  the  Rebellion,  to  be  followed  by  foreign 
recognition,  coalition,  and  the  speedy  degradation  of 
the  United  States. 

Captain  Wilkes  had  not  been  instructed  to  take 
this  step,  and  hence  the  Administration  was  not 
obliged  to  support  him  in  it.  The  policy  of  the 
United  States  had  always  been  unfavorable  to  search- 
ing the  vessels  of  friendly  neutral  powers,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  old,  arrogant  British  claim  to  the  right 
of  search  and  impressment.  And  this  very  thing 
had  mainly  led  President  Madison  to  declare  war 
against  England  in  1812.  On  these  two  grounds  the 
Administration  could  readily  rest  the  defense  of  the 
course  it  determined  to  take  in  this  unfortunate  case. 

From  the  outset  Mr.  Lincoln  regretted  the  action 
of  Wilkes,  not  thinking  it  either  just  or  politic.  It 
was  not  the  time  to  quarrel  with  England ;  and  the 
way  to  adjust  the  difficulty  carried  with  it,  at  least, 
the  appearance  of  humiliation.  The  Cabinet  was  not 
unanimous  on  the  course  to  be  pursued,  and  at  any 
rate  one  member  of  it,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
never  did  depart  from  the  strong  position  he  first 
took,  with  the  majority  of  the  people,  in  support  of 
the  conduct  of  Captain  Wilkes.  Mr.  Welles,  in  a 
letter  to  Wilkes,  on  the  30th  of  November,  publicly 
thanked   him   for   his   patriotic  act.     But  this  only 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  179 

showed  that,  unrestrained  by  calmer  and  more  politic 
heads,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  would  hardly  have 
been  a  very  safe  man  in  times  of  great  emergency. 
The  House  of  Representatives  also  passed  a  vote  of 
thanks,  and  asked  the  President  to  provide  a  gold 
medal  for  Captain  Wilkes;  but  the  calmer  Senate 
did  not  agree  to  this  measure.  While  the  action  of 
the  House  represented  the  heat  and  sentiment  of  the 
majority  of  the  people  of  the  country,  it  also  exhibited 
the  value  of  the  Senate  and  Executive  as  a  check  on 
its  temper  and  extravagance  at  an  important  crisis. 

This  event  was  not  needed  to  show  this  country 
the  secret  unfriendliness  of  England,  and  its  imper- 
ishable hatred  for  this  Republic  and  its  people;  nor 
was  such  an  incentive  necessary  here  to  remind  us 
of  our  old,  ineradicable  grudges,  and  disposition  to 
fire  up  on  the  least  imaginary  or  real  provocation  on 
the  part  of  England.  Great  Britain  never  had  a 
better  opportunity  to  do  what  her  leading  politicians 
and  aristocratic  classes  have  doubtlessly  always  de- 
sired, to  destroy  this  Government,  or  put  it  in  the 
way  to  destruction;  nor  was  this  country  ever  in  a 
worse  condition  to  engage  in  a  fierce  life-struggle 
with  her  old  foe.  This  was  all  very  well  known  in 
England,  and  her  failure  to  take  full  advantage  of  her 
opportunity  entitles  her  to  more  credit,  perhaps,  than 
the  American  people  were  ever  disposed  to  give  her, 
whatever  may  have  been  her  motives. 

At  the  outset  England  and  France  had  made  haste 
to  let  this  Government,  with  which  they  held  the 
most  friendly  diplomatic  relations,  know  that   they 


180  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

would  SO  far  take  note  of  its  affairs  as  to  recognize 
the  belligerent  rights  of  the  rebels — rights  which 
they  did  not  possess — and  thus  do  what  they  could 
to  weaken  its  power.  When  Captain  Wilkes  com- 
mitted his  blunder,  the  ruling  "class"  in  England 
declared  for  war,  and  said  the  first  thing  should  be 
independence  to  the  South.  The  downfall  of  the 
Republic  would  follow. 

The  Administration  took  the  course  that  wisdom 
and  prudence  dictated,  and  was  quite  as  selfish  in 
doing  so  as  England  was  in  accepting  what  was 
done.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  American  Min- 
ister at  the  London  Court,  was  at  once  notified  by 
Mr.  Seward  of  the  course  the  Administration  would 
take  when  the  time  came ;  and  Mr.  Adams  prepared 
himself  to  perform  his  part  of  the  work  to  the  utmost 
satisfaction  of  his  chief,  whom  he  deemed  not  only 
the  model  statesman  of  the  age,  but  also  the  intel- 
lectual and  executive  force  of  a  Cabinet,  where  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  nothing  more  than  a  mere  figure-head. 
England  was  not  long  in  presenting  the  occasion  for 
action,  which  Mr.  Seward  and  the  President  knew 
must  come.  And  the  demand  was  what  they  ex- 
pected, at  least,  reparation  and  apology.  Mr.  Seward 
set  about  the  work  at  once,  and,  whether  it  was  a 
duty  or  a  necessity,  the  task  was  a  difficult  one.  The 
whole  matter,  so  far  as  this  Government  was  con- 
cerned, rested  upon  the  fact  that  it  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  go  to  war  with  England,  and  the  way  out 
of  this  difficulty  was  in  the  simple  rejection  of  the 
act  of  Captain  Wilkes,  the  release  of  the  four  rebels, 


ABEAHAM  LINCOLN.  181 

and  the  reassertion  of  the  principle  for  which  the 
Government  had  stood  out  in  its  first  quarter  of  a 
century  against  the  British.  But  Mr.  Seward  had  a 
double  task  to  perform.  To  satisfy  his  impulsive  coun- 
trymen was  of  less  importance  than  to  appease  Eng- 
land's outraged  honor,  yet  it  was  necessary.  Hence, 
it  was  incumbent  on  him  to  take  a  much  wider  scope 
in  his  presentation  of  the  case  to  the  British  Min- 
istry than  was  implied  in  the  brief  points  suggested 
by  the  circumstances  of  the  country  at  the  time. 
Mr.  Seward's  argument  was  able  and  ingenious,  and 
while  it  taught  England  that  there  were  two  sides 
to  the  question,  and  much  in  it  unfavorable  to  her,  it 
did  something  in  correcting  the  hasty  judgment  of 
the  people  at  home,  and  showing  them  that  the  act 
of  Captain  Wilkes,  beyond  being  not  merely  impolitic, 
was  also  not  strictly  just  toward  a  neutral  power; 
and,  especially,  was  inconsistent  with  the  former 
claims  of  this  Government. 

England  accepted  the  points  in  the  argument, 
which  she  considered  particularly  satisfactory  to  her 
wounded  pride,  the  rebels  were  released  and  went  on 
their  way,  and  the  two  nations  continued  their  former 
hypocritical  friendship. 

The  United  States  Government  had  only  done 
right  in  the  case,  and  so  the  world  has  judged ;  but 
the  rebels  cried  that  she  had  been  led  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  ignominious  humiliation  to  avoid  war  with 
England.  This  was  to  be  expected,  as  they  were 
the  only  sufferers  by  the  "  Trent  Case."  With  this 
"special    providence"    went     down    their    hope    in 


182  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

England.  The  ways  of  Providence  were  as  treach- 
erous as  the  allurements  of  Great  Britain.  And  even 
the  virulent  "  London  Times "  now  uttered  these 
sentiments : — 

"So  we  do  sincerely  hope  that  our  countrymen  will 
not  give  these  fellows  anything  in  the  shape  of  an  ovation. 
The  civility  that  is  due  to  a  foe  in  distress  is  all  that  they 
can  claim.  We  have  returned  them  good  for  evil,  and, 
sooth  to  say,  we  should  be  exceedingly  sorry  that  they 
should  ever  be  in  a  situation  to  choose  what  return  they 
will  make  for  the  good  we  have  now  done  them.  They  are 
here  for  their  own  interest,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  drag  us 
into  their  own  quarrel,  and,  but  for  the  unpleasant  contin- 
gencies of  a  prison,  rather  disappointed,  perhaps,  that  their 
detention  has  not  provoked  a  new  war.  When  they  stepped 
on  board  the  Trent  they  did  not  trouble  themselves  with 
the  thought  of  the  mischief  they  might  be  doing  an  un- 
oflPending  neutral;  and  if  now,  by  any  less  perilous  device, 
they  could  entangle  us  in  the  war,  no  doubt  they  would  be 
only  too  happy.  We  trust  there  is  no  chance  of  their  doing 
this;  for,  impartial  as  the  British  public  is  in  the  matter,  it 
certainly  has  no  prejudice  in  favor  of  slavery,  which,  if 
anything,  these  gentlemen  represent.  What  they  and  their 
secretaries  are  to  do  here  passes  our  conjecture.  They  are, 
personally,  nothing  to  us.  They  must  not  suppose,  because 
we  have  gone  to  the  very  verge  of  a  great  war  to  rescue 
them,  that  therefore  they  are  precious  in  our  eyes.  We 
should  have  done  just  as  much  to  rescue  two  of  their  own 
negroes;  and,  had  that  been  the  object  of  the  rescue,  the 
swarthy  Pompey  and  Csesar  would  have  had  just  the  same 
right  to  triumphal  arches  and  municipal  addresses  as 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell.  So,  please,  British  public,  let 's 
have  none  of  these  things.  Let  the  commissioners  come  up 
quietly  to  town,  and  have  their  say  with  anybody  who  may 
have  time  to  listen  to  them.     For  our  part,  we  can  not  see 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN;'  183 

how  anything  they  have  to  tell  can  turn  the  scale  of  British 
duty  and  deliberation. 

"  There  have  been  so  many  cases  of  peoples  and  na- 
tions establishing  an  actual  independence,  and  compelling 
the  recognition  of  the  world,  that  all  we  have  to  do  is 
what  we  have  done  before,  up  to  the  very  last  year.  This 
is  now  a  simple  matter  of  precedent.  Our  statesmen  and 
lawyers  know  quite  |as  much  on  the  subject  as  Messrs. 
Mason  and  Slidell,  and  are  in  no  need  of  their  information 
or  advice." 

Besides  the  plain  people,  there  were  here  and 
there  men  of  public  note  and  intellectual  worth  in 
England  who  opposed  the  idea  of  war  with  the 
United  States ;  and  especially  must  it  be  remem- 
bered that  the  Queen  and  Prince  Consort  earnestly 
desired  a  peaceful  ending  of  the  "  Trent  Case."  To 
the  influence  of  this  Christian  Prince  who  recognized 
the  kinship  of  race  more  than  everything  else,  perhaps, 
may  be  traced  the  repression  of  the  evil  tendencies 
of  "  Lord  "  Palmerston's  ministry.  The  "  privileged 
class,"  starting  with  its  old  grudge  against  this 
country,  hoped  the  Rebellion  would  end  in  the  down- 
fall of  Free  America;  and  to  a  great  extent  the 
"middle  class"  was  readily  brought  into  this  view. 
The  great  cultivator  of  this  sentiment  was  a  licentious 
public  press,  at  the  head  of  which  stood  the  utterly 
vicious  and  unprincipled  "  London  Times." 

In  the  last  days  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Administra- 
tion this  paper  began  its  work  in  the  usual  way 
where  a  mean  purpose  is  in  view,  by  comparisons 
favorable  to  the  North ;  and  gradually  worked  out 
the    case   in   hand,  landing    the   great   mass   of    its 


184  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

readers    with  the   South,  where  their  free-trade  in- 
terests were  supposed  to  be.     It  said : — 

"  The  Southern  States  have  sinned  more  than  the 
Northern.  They  have  exhibited  a  passionate  effrontery, 
not  content  with  the  sufferance  of  slavery,  but  determined 
on  its  extension.  They  refuse  to  have  any  man  for  Presi- 
dent unless  he  regards  a  black  servant  and  a  black  port- 
manteau as  chattels  of  the  same  category  and  description. 
The  right,  with  all  its  advantages,  belongs  to  the  States  of 
the  North.  The  North  is  for  freedom,  the  South  for  the 
tar-brush  and  pine-fagot.  Free  and  democratic  communi- 
ties have  applied  themselves  to  the  honorable  office  of 
breeding  slaves  to  be  consumed  on  the  free  and  democratic 
plantations  of  the  South ;  thus  replacing  the  African  trade 
by  an  internal  one  of  equal  atrocity.  The  South  has  be- 
come enamored  of  her  shame." 

Of  the  declaration  of  South  Carolina  it  wrote  : — 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  frivolous  than  the  grounds  of 
this  manifesto ;  its  statements  are  utter  falsehoods.  With- 
out law,  without  justice,  without  delay,  South  Carolina  is 
treading  the  path  that  leads  to  the  downfall  of  nations 
and  to  the  misery  of  families.  The  hollowness  of  her 
cause  is  seen  beneath  all  the  pomp  of  her  labored  de- 
nunciations. Charleston,  without  trade,  is  an  animal  under 
an  exhausted  receiver.     Trade  is  her  very  breath." 

"  Time,  the  Avenger,  is  doing  justice  between  the 
American  people  and  ourselves.  With  what  willingness 
would  they  not  see  their  sonorous  Fourth  of  July  rhetoric 
covered  by  the  waters  of  oblivion !  They  have  fallen  to 
pieces,  but  we  have  shown  no  joy  at  secession;  we  have 
given  no  encouragement  to  the  South ;  we  have  turned 
away  from  the  bait  of  free  trade,  and  have  strengthened 
them  by  our  sympathy  and  advice.  The  secession  of  South 
Carolina  is   to  them    what    the    secession   of  Lancashire 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  185 

would  be   to    us:   it  is    treason  and   should  be  put  down. 
But  the   North  is  full  of  sophists,  rhetoricians,  logicians, 
and  lawers;    it   has    not  a   man   of  action.     .     .     .     The. 
Union  seems  to  be  destined  to    fall   without    a    struggle, 
without  a  lament,  without  an  epitaph." 

"  The  force  of  political  cohesion  will  probably  be  too 
strong  even  for  the  ambition  and  sectional  hatred  of  the 
Charleston  demagogues.  Though  things  look  so  promis- 
ing for  them,  it  is  evident  that  the  secession  leaders  and 
their  too-willing  followers  are  in  the  beginning  of  terrible 
disasters.  Southern  credit  does  not  stand  high  either  in 
the  Union  or  in  the  world.  Capital  flies  from  a  laud 
ruled  by  fanatical  demagogues." 

"  It  will  not  be  our  fault,  if  the  inopportune  legisla- 
ture of  the  North,  combined  with  the  reciprocity  of  wants 
between  ourselves  and  the  South,  should  bring  about  a 
considerable  modification  of  our  relations  with  America. 
The  tendencies  of  trade  are  inexorable.  It  may  be  that 
the  Southern  population  will  now  become  our  best  cus- 
tomers. The  Free  States  will  long  repent  an  act  (Morrill 
Tariff)  which  brings  needless  discredit  on  the  intrinsic 
merits  of  their  cause." 

"  The  Union  is  effectually  divided  into  two  rival  con- 
federacies. The  Southern  is  tainted  by  slavery,  filibuster- 
ing, and  called  into  existence,  it  would  seem,  by  a  course 
of  deliberate  and  deep-laid  treason  on  the  part  of  high 
officials  at  Washington.  In  the  Northern,  the  principles 
avowed  are  such  as  to  command  the  sympathies  of  free 
and  enlightened  people.  But  mankind  will  not  ultimately 
judge  by  sympathies  and  antipathies;  they  will  be  greatly 
swayed  by  their  own  interests." 

*'  In  the  South  we  find  the  most  convincing  proofs  of 
forethought  and  deliberation.  .  .  .  Reunion  can  never 
be  expected.  Men  do  not  descend  to  such  depths  of 
treachery  and  infamy  unless  they  are  about  to  take  a  step 
which  they  believe  to  be  irrevocable. 


186  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"  While  the  North  is  passing  a  prohibitory  tariff,  and 
speculating  on  balancing  the  loss  of  the  cotton  regions  by 
annexing  Canada,  the  Confederates  are  on  their  good 
behavior.  They  are  free-traders.  The  coasting  trade 
from  Charleston  to  Galveston  is  thrown  open  to  the 
British  flag." 

So  it  went  on  in  a  regular  and  easy  grade  until 
it  and  the  great  bulk  of  the  English  people  among 
manufacturers,  traders,  and  the  aristocracy  were 
ranged  on  the  side  of  the  Rebellion.  The  rest  of 
Europe  was  largely  guided  by  the  opinions  of  Eng- 
land, and  thus  it  turned  out  that  the  loyal  North  had 
to  fight  alone  the  great  battle  of  freedom,  when  it 
had  every  reason  to  feel  that  England  would  have 
given  her  moral  support.  Even  before  Mr.  Adams, 
the  representative  of  the  new  Administration,  ar- 
rived in  London,  the  Ministry  had  acknowledged  the 
belligerent  rights  of  the  seceding  States,  and  on  the 
13th  of  May,  1861,  England  issued  a  neutrality  proc- 
lamation. France  and  Spain  soon  after  followed  in 
the  same  unfriendly  and  undiplomatic,  vicious,  and 
erroneous  proceeding.  The  Government  and  people 
of  the  United  States  were  greatly  and  justl}^  in- 
censed by  this  action ;  and  when  the  representa- 
tives of  these  meddlesome,  unfriendly,  foreign  powers 
notified  Mr.  Seward  that  they  had  special  messages 
from  their  governments  to  read  to  him,  he  refused  to 
hear  them  until  he  should  first  have  an  opportunity 
to  read  them  privately  ;  and,  this  privilege  granted,  he 
still  declined  to  hear  them  or  hold  any  communica- 
tions on  the  subject  with  the  Ministers. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  187 

Along  about  this  time,  and  later,  England  also 
showed  further  signs  of  intermeddling,  in  discussing 
the  propriety  of  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  this 
country  between  what  she  termed  the  "  belligerents," 
and  in  listening  to  rebel  agents  and  the  misguided 
and  unpatriotic  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party. 
Lyons,  the  British  Minister  at  Washington,  recited 
in  detail  to  his  government,  the  speculations  and  de- 
sires of  these  evil-minded  men,  as  expressed  to  him, 
concerning  the  interference  of  England,  and  gave  his 
own  views  of  the  extent  to  which  he  thought  the 
Democratic  leaders  of  the  North  would  go,  at  the 
proper  time,  toward  the  disintegration  of  the  Ameri- 
can Republic.  "  Lord  "  Lyons  was  a  cool,  cautious, 
and  fair  man,  and  possibly  wished  no  ill  to  this  Gov- 
ernment ;  but  he  committed  the  mistake  of  attaching 
any  importance  to  the  opinions  and  purposes  of  the 
Democratic  politicians  who  were,  as  such,  the  oppo- 
nents of  every  measure  of  the  Administration,  or  of 
even  listening  to  their  unstatesman-like  schemes. 
The  power  of  these  men  had  vanished,  not  soon  to 
return.  Even  then  they  were  without  followers. 
The  guns  of  Fort  Sumter  had  broken  the  party  bands, 
and  the  great  mass  of  the  Democrats  had  gone, 
heart  and  main,  to  the  support  of  the  Government  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  Rebellion.  In  his  letter  to  the 
Ministry  on  the  17th  of  November,  1861,  Lyons 
expresses  his  true  sentiment,  perhaps,  in  these 
words : — 

"  The  immediate  and  obvious  interest  of  Great  Britain, 
as  well  as  of  th.e  rest  of  Europe,  is  that  peace  and  pros- 


188  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

perity  should  be  restored  to  this  country  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble. The  point  chiefly  worthy  of  consideration  appears  to 
be  whether  separation  or  reunion  be  the  more  likely  to 
affect  this  object." 

Four  things  may  be  said  to  have  controlled  Eng- 
land in  reference  to  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  in  this 
country :  self-interest,  old  grudges,  and  hatred  of  the 
Yankee,  and  her  devotion  to  the  "  divine  rights  "  of 
kingcraft.  Where  the  just  cause  was  and  where  her 
sympathy  should  be,  she  freely  acknowledged,  at  the 
outset.  But  whatever  mriy  be  set  to  the  credit  of 
England  in  many  instances,  it  was  not  to  her  purpose 
now  to  be  controlled  by  honorable  sympathy,  the 
sympathy  of  honorable  principle.  She  overestimated 
the  strength  and  endurance  of  the  South,  and  the 
extent  and  force  of  the  allies  of  the  Rebellion  at  the 
North,  and,  as  she  had  ever  done,  underestimated  the 
almost  boundless  resources  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  ;  and  in  her  great  greed  for  free  trade, 
for  a  restoration  of  her  ancient  monopoly  of  Southern 
trade,  she  lost  sight  of  her  loud  pretensions  toward 
and  hatred  of  slavery. 

If  the  United  States  saw  fit  to  give  a  little  in 
the  settlement  of  the  "  Trent  Case,"  gaining  thereby 
more  esteem,  the  world  over,  than  it  got  censure  and 
ridicule  from  those  who  looked  at  its  deeds  and 
purposes  only  with  evil  intent,  the  course  of  Great 
Britain  in  dealing  with  the  American  question  during 
the  War  presented, -morally,  as  false,'humiliating,  and 
pitiable  a  spectacle  as  ever  marred  the  history  of  a 
so-called  Christian  nation. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  189 

After  starting  out  with  the  voluntary  statement 
and  belief  that  all  the  right,  justice,  and  good  were 
on  the  side  of  the  North  and  the  Government,  and 
all  the  evil  and  wrong  on  the  side  of  the  rebels,  and 
having  declared  fully  that  the  sympathy  of  all  en- 
lightened people  should  be  with  the  former,  the 
"  moral "  support  of  the  Ministry  was  given  to  the 
Rebellion,  and  the  ruling  class  in  England  turned  its 
attention  to  attempts  to  break  down  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  and  cheer  on  its  enemies  by  hopes  that  never 
had  any  foundation  in  its  promises,  while  the  great 
masses  in  the  mercantile  and  literary  ranks  did  all 
they  could  to  falsify  the  triumphs  and  purposes  of 
the  Government  and  its  loyal  supporters. 

Hatred  for  slavery,  and  all  its  recent  efforts  in 
behiilf  of  American  Abolitionism,  and  its  triumphs  in 
freeing  its  own  possessions  of  the  taint  of  slavery, 
England  now  forgot.  This  record  was  blotted  out  by 
the  lust  of  gain.  Her  past  acts  and  all  her  preten- 
sions went  for  nothing  when  weighed  against  cotton, 
against  the  free  trade  of  an  improvident  and  lazy, 
aristocratic  people.  Good  deeds,  good  words,  good 
principles  England  now  banished,  and  for  them  un- 
wisely and  unprofitably  substituted  a  series  of  dark 
and  damning  efforts  to  thwart  the  Government,  for 
which  her  friendly  pretensions  were  at  no  time  miti- 
gated. Her  manufactories  were  fired  up  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Rebellion  ;  her  ship-yards  acquired  a  new 
impetus  from  their  Southern  patronage,  always  bank- 
rupt, by  her  own  statement ;  her  d:varicious  merchants 
and   bankers   took   new  risks  in  behalf  of  a  people 


190  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

with  poor  credit,  according  to  their  own  statements, 
in  the  best  of  circumstances;  and  blockade-runners 
infested  the  coast  she  imagined  should  belong  to  her 
from  Cape  Hatteras  to  the  Rio  Grande. 

In  all  this,  if  there  could  be  one  mitigating  cir- 
cumstance, it  was  in  the  fact  that  England  did  not, 
perhaps,  like  the  wrong  side  more  than  the  right; 
but,  in  her  insatiable  avarice  she  sacrificed  all  that 
had  been  admirable  in  her  history,  and  all  that  was 
manly  and  true  in  her  treatment  of  a  kindred  nation. 
The  inducements  she  held  out  to  the  rebels  were  de- 
lusive, and  to  these  must  be  charged,  to  some  extent, 
the  duration  and  persistence  of  the  Rebellion,  and 
hence  much  of  the  suffering  and  evils  of  the  times. 
Kindredship  of  race  and  tongue  will  undoubtedly  do 
much  to  eradicate  the  deep  feelings  in  America 
against  England,  for  the  wrongs  meant  and  the 
wrongs  inflicted  during  this  critical  period  in  the 
national  life,  when  with  no  detriment  to  her  she 
could  have  strengthened  the  cause  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  shortened  the  bloody  struggle.  As  the 
Ericsson  Monitor  and  the  vast  proportions  of  the 
American  navy  greatly  weakened  the  tendencies  of 
Britain  during  the  war,  the  conquest  of  the  Rebellion, 
vaster  beyond  all  comparison  than  any  she  had  ever 
encountered,  gave  her  a  new  reason  to  deal  justly 
and  fairly,  at  least  with  the  United  States,  in  the 
future.  In  this  wonderful  war  she  saw  her  claim  as 
"  mistress  of  the  seas  "  crumble  away.  And  should 
she  be  unwise  enough  to  raise  a  warlike  issue  with 
this  country,  the  old  scores  of  the  slaveholders'  Re- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  191 

bellion  would,  with  other  still  unforgotten  memories, 
rise  up  against  her  for  the  day  of  vengeance.  And 
whatever  may  be  said  of  the  spirit,  probably  millions 
of  Americans  would  be  willing  to  undergo  the  hard- 
ships and  dangers  of  another  war,  if  by  it  the  aristo- 
cratic government  of  England  could  be  subverted, 
and  every  vestige  of  her  authority  utterly  destroyed 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere. 

For  several  years  before  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Rebellion  the  South  had  attempted,  by  filibustering 
and  negotiation,  to  open  the  way  for  a  vast  extension 
of  slave  territory  in  Mexico  and  Central  America. 
A  favorable  change  of  government  in  Mexico  would 
furnish  the  South  an  opportunity  for  a  coalition  in 
which  she  could  dominate,  and  in  which  she  would 
be  able  to  hold  her  own  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  Free  North.  The  Southern  leaders  saw  in  their 
dreams  a  vast  congenial  empire  founded  on  their 
principle  of  Christian  civilization,  African  slavery, 
stretching  around  the  Gulf  of  IVIexico  to  South 
America,  and  eventually  embracing  all  the  West 
India  Islands.  But  as  the  schemes  of  secession 
were  developed,  and  this  dream  of  empire  seemed  to 
be  more  likely  to  be  realized,  France,  England,  and 
Spain  began  to  consider  the  subject  in  the  light  of 
their  present  and  ancient  claims  in  the  same  region. 
They  were,  indeed,  little  behind  the  Southern  adven- 
turers in  their  schemes  to  turn  the  American  political 
dissensions  to  their  own  benefit.  Two  or  three  years 
before  the  close  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Administration 
Napoleon  III.   began   to  lay  his  own   plans  for  an 


192  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

establishment  under  French  authority  in  Mexico.  The 
wounds  he  had  inflicted  on  the  emperor  of  Austria 
he  wished  to  palliate  or  heal  while  advancing  his  own 
interests,  by  rearing  a  throne  in  the  West  and  placing 
on  it  Maximilian,  the  brother  of  the  Austrian  king. 
This  he  kept  to  himself,  and  about  the  time  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  inauguration  a  kind  of  joint  protectorate  for 
Mexico  was  arranged  upon  by  France,  England,  and 
Spain.  This  was  the  key  to  the  immediate  recogni- 
tion by  these  governments  of  the  belligerent  rights 
of  the  South.  The  French  emperor  had  before 
favored  Southern  secession,  and  now  he  set  about 
giving  the  Rebellion  what  encouragement  his  pur- 
poses demanded.  Secession  accomplished  would 
break  the  power  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  destroy  its  Monroe  Doctrine,  and  make  it 
easy  of  control. 

So  far  as  the  Federal  Union  was  concerned  this 
European  scheme  implied  and  desired  its  dissolution. 
Not,  however,  the  complete  destruction  of  the  Ameri- 
can form  of  government.  It  was  said,  and  perhaps 
believed,  that  the  commercial  interests  of  England, 
France,  and  Spain,  as  also  other  European  govern- 
ments, would  be  best  subserved  by  dividing  the 
United  States  into  two  republics,  and  while  main- 
taining them  as  enemies  to  each  other,  render  them 
singly  powerless  in  shaping  or  dictating  the  course 
of  foreign  interlopers  on  the  continent,  and  yet  pre- 
serve all  their  foreign  commercial  benefits.  While 
these  European  monarchies  would  have  been  willing 
to  divide  the  Western   World  among  themselves,  it 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  193 

by  no  means  follows  that  they  would  have  been 
pleased  to  see  a  great  rival  monarchy  arise  here.  An 
enterprising,  trading,  free  republic  was  more  desira- 
ble, notwithstanding  their  senseless  and  unmanly  de- 
votion to  titles,  aristocracy,  and  kingly  slavery  and 
tyranny. 

Spain  consented  to  the  Mexican  scheme,  as  she 
understood  it,  mainly  from  the  hope  that  it  would 
some  way  turn  out  in  the  restoration  of  her  ancient 
authority  over  that  country,  her  weakness  rendering 
her  an  object  of  little  concern  to  the  great  powers. 

There  was  in  this  adventure  another  European  ■ 
interest  which  should  not  be  overlooked,  that  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome ;  and  the  whole  scheme  was  pushed 
forward  by  Almonte,  Miramon,  and  La  Bastida  (the 
Romish  Archbishop  of  Mexico),  and,  perhaps,  other 
Mexicans  who  were  in  Europe  looking  after  their 
own  interests.  One  of  Maximilian's  preparatory 
steps  was  to  negotiate  with  the  Pope  for  the  restora- 
tion to  the  Catholic  Church  of  its  old  mortmain 
claims  in  Mexico.  So  one  way  and  another,  through 
intrigues  at  Paris,  at  London,  and  in  the  Vatican,  a 
monarchy  was  provided  for.  The  part  the  people  of 
Mexico  took  in  this  work,  if  there  could  be  such  a 
thing  as  the  "people  of  Mexico,"  was  farcical  in  the 
extreme.  La  Bastida's  intrigues  reconciled  the  Church 
party.  The  earthly  possessions  of  the  Church  far  out- 
weighed its  power  and  disposition  to  establish  in  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  the  people  an  inalienable  estate 
of  wisdom,  honor,  and  justice.  ' 

Long  before  the  consummation  of  the  final  steps 

13— Q 


194  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

for  this  outrage  on  America,  England  and  Spain  dis- 
covering the  purposes  of  Napoleon,  withdrew  from  the 
coalition,  England  having,  to  some  extent,  palliated 
her  crime  in  the  matter  by  stipulating  for  the  sup- 
port or  recognition  of  the  religion  of  intelligence  and 
virtue,  in  a  country  where  there  never  had  been  one 
nor  the  other. 

It  was  now  the  middle  of  the  summer  of  1863 
before  the  French  army  reached  the  City  of  Mexico, 
and  began  the  preparations  for  the  first  act  in  the 
wicked  drama,  with  the  Archduke  of  Austria  as  the 
leading  dupe.  The  illusory  hopes  Napoleon  had 
aroused  in  the  breasts  of  the  Southern  leaders  had 
long  been  dead.  They  had  been  deceived.  All  ex- 
pectations as  to  Europe  had  failed,  and  of  this  failure 
Jefferson  Davis,  in  his  strangely  unsound  work  says, 
in  speaking  of  the  conduct  of  foreign  powers  in  re- 
fusing to  treat  the  South  as  an  independent  power : — 

"  One  immediate  and  necessary  result  of  their  declining 
the  responsibility  of  a  decision,  which  must  have  been  ad- 
verse to  the  extravagant  pretensions  of  the  United  States, 
was  the  prolongation  of  hostilities  to  which  our  enemies 
were  thereby  encouraged,  and  which  resulted  in  scenes  of 
carnage  and  devastation  on  this  continent  and  misery  and 
suffering  on  the  other,  such  as  have  scarcely  a  parallel  in 
history.  .  .  .  These  neutral  nations  treated  our  in- 
vasion by  our  former  limited  and  special  agent  as  though 
it  were  the  attempt  of  a  sovereign  to  suppress  a  rebellion 
against  lawful  authority." 

In  the  winter  of  1862  James   A.  DcDougall,  of 
California,  introduced  in  the  Senate  a  series  of  resolu- 


ABEAHAM  LINCOLN.  195 

tions,  declaring  the  course  of  Frnnce  unfriendly  to 
this  country,  expressing  sympathy  with  Mexico,  and 
bitterly  denouncing  any  attempts  on  the  part  of 
European  monarchies  to  interfere  with  republican 
governments  on  this  continent.  But  the  Republicans 
hiid  these  resolutions  on  the  table.  Again,  in  the  fol- 
lowino;  winter,  Mr.  McDouoall  came  forward  with  a 
resolution  calling  upon  the  President  to  demand  the 
withdrawal  of  the  French  troops  which  had  been 
hinded  in  Mexico,  and  if  this  demand  was  not  com- 
plied with  in  a  reasonable  time  war  should  be  de- 
clared against  France. 

In  the  spring  of  1864,  Henry  Winter  Davis  was 
more  successful,  and  obtained  the  unanimous  support 
of  the  House  to  the  following  spirited  reassertion  of 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  are 
unwilling,  by  silence,  to  leave  the  nations  of  the  world 
under  the  impression  that  they  are  indifferent  spectators 
of  the  deplorable  events  now  transpiring  in  the  Republic 
of  Mexico;  and  they  therefore  think  fit  to  declare  that  it 
does  not  accord  with  the  policy  of  the  United  States  to 
acknowledge  a  monarchical  government,  erected  on  the 
ruins  of  any  republican  government  in  America,  under  the 
auspices  of  any  European  power." 

This  resolution  Mr.  McDougall  attempted  to  pass 
in  the  Senate,  but  unsuccessfully. 

The  House  called  upon  the  President  for  the  cor- 
respondence with  France  on  the  occupation  of  Mex- 
ico, and  a  part  of  it  he  saw  fit  to  submit.  In  a  letter 
from  the  Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Dayton,  Minister 


196  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  France,  there  was  revealed  this   remarkable  state- 
ment in  reference  to  the  House  resolution : — 

"  It  is  hardly  necessary,  after  what  I  have  heretofore 
written  with  perfect  candor  for  the  information  of  France, 
to  say  that  this  resolution  truly  interprets  the  unanimous 
sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  regard  to 
Mexico.  It  is,  however,  another  and  distinct  question 
whether  the  United  States  would  think  it  necessary  or 
proper  to  express  themselves  in  the  form  adopted  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  at  this  time.  This  is  a  practical 
and  purely  Executive  question,  and  the  decision  of  its  Con- 
stitutionality belongs  not  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
nor  even  to  Congress,  but  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  You  will,  of  course,  take  notice  that  the  declara- 
tion made  by  the  House  of  Representatives  is  in  the  form 
of  a  joint  resolution,  which,  before  it  can  acquire  the  char- 
acter of  a  legislative  act,  must  receive,  first,  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Senate,  and,  secondly,  the  approval  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States ;  or,  in  case  of  his  dissent, 
the  renewed  assent  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  to  be  ex- 
pressed by  a  majority  of  two-thirds  of  each  body.  While 
the  President  receives  the  declaration  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  with  the  profound  respect  to  which  it  is 
entitled,  as  an  exposition  of  its  sentiments  upon  a  grave 
and  important  subject,  he  directs  that  you  inform  the  gov- 
ernment of  France  that  he  does  not  at  present  contemplate 
any  departure  from  the  policy  which  this  Government  has 
hitherto  pursued  in  regard  to  the  war  which  exists  between 
France  and  Mexico." 

Mr.  Davis's  report  contains  this  timely  and  just 
reproof: — 

"  The  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  have  examined 
the  correspondence  submitted  by  the  President  relative  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  197 

the  joint  resolution  on  Mexican  affairs  with  the  profound 
respect  to  which  it  is  entitled,  because  of  the  gravity  of 
its  subject  and  the  distinguished  source  from  which  it 
emanated. 

"  They  regret  that  the  President  should  have  so  widely 
departed  from  the  usage  of  Constitutional  governments  as 
to  make  a  pending  resolution  of  so  grave  and  delicate  a 
character  the  subject  of  diplomatic  explanations.  They  re- 
gret still  more  that  the  President  should  have  thought 
proper  to  inform  a  foreign  government  of  a  radical  and 
serious  conflict  of  opinion  and  jurisdiction  between  the  de- 
positories of  the  legislative  and  Executive  power  of  the 
United  States. 

"No  expression  of  deference  can  make  the  denial  of 
the  right  of  Congress  Constitutionally  to  do  what  the 
House  did  with  absolute  unanimity,  other  than  derogatory 
to  their  dignity. 

"  They  learn  with  surprise  that,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
President,  the  form  and  term  of  expressing  the  judgment 
of  the  United  States  on  recognizing  a  monarchical  gov- 
ernment imposed  on  a  neighboring  republic  is  a  *  purely 
Executive  question,  and  the  decision  of  it  Constitutionally 
belongs  not  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  nor  even  to 
Congress,  but  to  the  President  of  the  United  States.' 

"  This  assumption  is  equally  novel  and  inadmissible. 
No  President  has  ever  claimed  such  an  exclusive  author- 
ity. No  Congress  can  ever  permit  its  expression  to  pass 
without  dissent." 

If  the  course  of  the  Administration  in  dealing 
with  this  Mexican  affair  was  liable  to  criticism  at 
the  outset,  there  need  be  no  question  as  to  its  sound- 
ness on  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  A  war  with  France 
at  such  a  time  would  have  been  unwise,  and  it  would 
be  difficult  now  to  apologize  for  a  policy  leading  to 
one.     The  diplomatic  skill  which  prevented  a  foreign 


198  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

war,  when  the  domestic  one  taxed  so  heavily  the 
resources  and  patriotism  of  the  country,  is  now  an 
occasion  of  national  congratulation  and  admiration, 
whatever  regret  may  be  felt  touching  the  necessities 
which  sometimes  surrounded  the  situation. 

When  the  Government  reached  the  point  in  which 
it  could  be  done  with  effect,  the  demand  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  French  troops  was  persistently  piessed, 
until  France  became  as  eager  to  get  them  away  from 
Mexico  as  the  United  States  was  to  have  them  away. 
The  French  were  dissatisfied  with  their  mean  and 
unwise  adventure,  and  even  plotted  for  the  downfall 
of  the  unfortunate  man  whom  they  had  duped  into 
trying  to  sit  on  an  imaginary  throne  in  Mexico.' 
And  the  Pope,  having  utterly  failed  in  his  avaricious 
scheme,  also  abandoned  Maximilian,  and  turned  a 
deaf  ear  to  the  lamentations  of  his  distracted  queen. 
The  American  Secretary  of  State,  in  oily  words,  urged 
the  evacuation  of  Mexico,  and  as  the  ultimate  success 
of  the  Government  in  conquering  the  rebels  became 
certain,  the  French  emperor  exhibited  great  anxiety 
to  comply  with  the  demand. 

Mr.  Seward  said  :  "  You  will  assure  the  French 
government  that  the  United  States,  in  wishing  to  free 
Mexico,  have  (has)  nothing  so  much  at  heart  as  pre- 
serving peace  and  friendship  with  France." 

However  true  were  these  diplomatic  words,  France 
had  but  one  thing  at  heart,  and  that  was  to  get  out 
of  the  mad  abyss  in  which  all  her  evil  purposes  and 
hopes  had  been  swallowed  up.  The  demands  of  the 
United  States  were  complied  with;  the  French  troops 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


199 


left  Mexico,  and  the  anarchic  democracy  murdered 
the  deluded  and  deserted  Austrian  prince,  and  sent 
his  corpse  and  his  broken-minded  widow  to  Europe 
as  Mexico's  legacy  and  warning  to  monarchic  ambi- 
tion. So  ended  another  of  the  wonderful  political 
drnmas  of  the  nineteenth  century,  whose  bloody  skel- 
eton history  has  dragged  itself  through  the  ministry 
of  "Lord"  Palmerston  to  the  tomb  of  Napoleon  and 
the  door  of  the  Vatican. 


200  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1862  — 1863  — WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— FINANCE  — THE 
GREENBACK  —  MR.  CHASE  —  POLITICS,  ELECTIONS, 
DRAFT-RIOTS— THE  GREAT  BATTLES  OF  THE  REBELL- 
ION FOUGHT  AT  THE  NORTH— THE  NEWSPAPERS- 
MR.  LINCOLN  AND  THE  AIDERS  AND  ABETTORS— "6W- 
CONSTITUTIONAL  "  BECOMES  A  BY-WORD. 

THE  war  gave  rise  to  extraordinary  demands  on 
the  financial  resources  of  the  Government,  which 
at  the  outset  were  met  without  very  great  difficulty 
by  the  skill  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the 
patriotism  of  the  bankers  and  the  people.  Still  the 
demands  increased,  and  the  credit  of  the  country  was 
shaken  by  its  reverses  on  the  battle-field,  the  general 
uncertainty  as  to  the  future  course  of  events,  and,  to 
some  extent,  by  the  intrigues  of  misguided  and  dis- 
loyal men  of  the  loyal  section.  Extraordinary  efforts 
were  necessary  to  furnish  means  for  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  To  this  end  Mr.  Chase  recommended  in 
his  report  in  December,  1861,  that  Government  notes 
or  bills,  properly  secured  by  the  bonds  of  the  Nation 
and  convertible  into  coin,  be  provided  and  placed  in 
the  hands  of  banks  and  associations ;  this  plan  being 
based  upon  the  idea  that  the  vast  loan  without  in- 
terest made  by  the  people  to  the  various  banking 
institutions  might,  with  great  propriety,  be  turned  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


201 


the  advantage  of  the  Government,  and  hence  to  the 
people  themselves,  instead  of  to  a  few  hundred  pri- 
vate corporations. 

During  the  winter  *of  1861  the  banks  suspended 
specie  payment,  generally,  throughout  the  country, 
and  the  Government  was  forced  to  do  the  same  with 
its  own  notes  in  circulation.  Congress  had  authorized 
the  issue  of  a  considerable  quantity  of  notes  to  sup- 
ply the  deficiency  between  the  amount  obtained  from 
the  revenues  and  the  loans  provided  for,  and  the 
amount  needed  for  current  expenses,  but  not  for  a 
general  circulating  currency.  In  his  report  in  De- 
cember, 1862,  Mr.  Chase  again  renewed  his  recom- 
mendation of  the  previous  year,  and  both  Houses  of 
Congress  accepted  it.  Under  this  plan  the  notes  of 
the  United  States  would  go  into  circulation  as  money 
to  supply  the  demands  of  the  country  and  the  Gov- 
ernment. It  was  a  choice  between  a  currency  fur- 
nished by  hundreds  of  individual  banks  without 
responsibility  beyond  the  resources  of  each  separate 
institution,  and  a  currency  furnished  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

There  were  other  considerations  in  favor  of  adopt- 
ing the  plan  of  Mr.  Chase  which  he  ably  set  forth. 
He  said  a  uniform  national  currency  would  thus  be 
established  on  the  honor  and  credit  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  also  supported  by  private  capital ;  this 
would  give  the  currency  of  the  country  the  highest 
possible  value  and  security ;  it  would  greatly  facili- 
tate home  and  foreign  business ;  it  would  reconcile 
the   interests  of   the   banks   and   the    people,    more 


202  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

nearly ;  it  would  supply  a  new  bond  of  union  among 
the  States ;  and  every  dollar  of  it  put  in  circulation 
in  the  thousands  of  channels,  would  give  every  man 
and  every  child  a  new  and  unchangeable  interest  in 
the  prosperity  and  permanency  of  the  Government. 

Thus  the  present  national  or  "  greenback  "  system 
took  its  origin,  and  rose  rapidly  into  popular  esteem. 
Congress  also  authorized  the  circulation  of  a  small 
fractional  currency  for  which  coin  was  substituted 
after  the  war.  The  final  steps  in  organizing  the 
national  banking  system  with  a  national  currency 
were  not  taken  until  in  the  winter  of  1862,  or  shortly 
before  the  end  of  the  session  of  Congress  in  the 
spring  of  1863;  and  the  law  was  somewhat  modified 
during  the  subsequent  session.  But  the  test  of  the 
system  had  been  satisfactory,  and  the  enactment  of 
this  law,  and  putting  it  into  execution,  revived  the 
public  credit  at  once,  and  gave  an  amazing  impulse 
to  public  affairs.  The  loans  were  taken  readily,  and 
all  the  demands  of  the  Treasury  filled  without  diffi- 
culty. Although  gold  became  an  article  of  merchan- 
dise and  a  dollar  of  it  could  not  be  purchased  by  a 
dollar  in  *'  greenback,"  the  Government  and  country 
had  no  further  embarrassment  during  the  war. 

At  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year,  June  30,  1863,  Mr. 
Chase  retired  from  the  Cabinet,  and  was  succeeded 
by  William  Pitt  Fessenden,  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury;  but  not  until  he  had  seen  his  wise  and 
fortunate  financial  system  established  and  successful 
beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectation.  And  now, 
after  a  test  of  twenty  years,  it  is  still  more  firmly 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  203 

fixed  in  the  affections  of  the  people ;  having  in  that 
time  exerted  a  deeper  and  more  wide-spread  influence 
than  its  author  ever  imagined,  in  the  work  of  "  re- 
construction," in  uniting  the  country  and  establishing 
a  common  national  feeling. 

The  national  greenback  banking  system  is  one  of 
the  great,  immeasurably  valuable  legacies  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  Administration  to  the  country.  Its  estab- 
lishment was  one  of  the  most  happy  events  in  the 
history  of  this  Republic  ;  and  for  it,  and  the  wonder- 
ful management  of  the  finances  of  the  country  under 
unparalleled  demands,  Mr.  Chase  will,  perhaps,  dis- 
pute with  Alexander  Hamilton  the  title  of  first 
American  financier.  Of  this  system  Hugh  McCul- 
loch,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Fessenden  in  March,  1865, 
says : — 

"  Since  the  commencement  of  the  special  session  of 
1861,  the  most  important  subject  which  has  demanded  and 
received  the  attention  of  Congress  has  been  that  of  pro- 
viding the  means  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  the 
success  of  the  Government  in  raising  money  is  evidence 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  measures  devised  for  this  purpose, 
as  well  as  of  the  loyalty  of  the  people  and  the  resources 
of  the  country.  No  nation  within  the  same  period  ever 
borrowed  so  largely  or  with  so  much  facility.  It  is  now 
demonstrated  that  a  Republican  Government  can  not  only 
carry  on  a  war  on  the  most  gigantic  scale,  and  create 
a  debt  of  immense  magnitude,  but  can  place  this  debt 
on  a  satisfactory  basis,  and  meet  every  engagement  with 
fidelity." 

The  extraordinary  success  and  skill  in  the  man- 
agement  of  the  national    finances    were   in   marked 


204  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

contrast  with  the  almost  childish  blundering  and 
utter  failure  of  the  rebel  efforts  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. From  bad  at  the  outset,  they  went  on  to  worse 
continually,  until  they  were  irrecoverably  bankrupt 
and  ruined  long  before  the  final  crash  of  arras. 

From  December,  1862,  to  the  middle  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  was  the  most  gloomy  period  of  the  great 
struggle  for  the  preservation  of  the  Nation.  While 
the  want  of  great  progress  in  the  army  in  the  West 
and  the  reverses  in  Virginia  furnished  some  founda- 
tion for  this  state  of  affairs,  to  the  political  opponents 
of  the  Administration  and  the  friends  of  peace  and 
secession  in  the  North  must  be  charged  mainly  the 
evils  of  these  dark  days.  In  the  winter  of  1862  the 
French  emperor  considered  himself  called  upon  to 
offer  his  services  as  a  pacificator  between  the  "  bel- 
ligerents." This  proposition  the  Administration  and 
loyal  people  looked  upon  as  implying'  the  recognition 
of  a  Southern  government,  and  an  arrangement  of 
the  differences  between  the  two  parts  of  the  divided 
Union.  It  meant  the  suspension  of  the  war,  the  only 
road  to  peace,  and  a  discussion  of  the  now  irrecon- 
cilable elements  of  division.  Fair  and  right-minded 
Russia  had  rejected  the  idea  of  this  foolish  and  un- 
friendly proposition,  and  even  England  knew  it  was 
useless.  In  his  letter  of  February,  1863,  declining 
the  proposition  of  France,  through  diplomatic  cour- 
tesy and  in  view  of  the  partisan  dissensions  at  home 
which  were  greatly  crippling  the  Administration,  Mr. 
Seward  made  an  extended  review  of  the  true  condi- 
tion of  American  affairs  as  bearing  on  the  case,  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  205 

of  the  certainty  of  the  failure  of  any  such  step.     In 
this  reply  the  Secretary  says  : — 

"  This  Government,  if  required,  does  not  hesitate  in 
submitting  its  achievements  to  the  test  of  comparison; 
and  it  maintains  that  in  no  part  of  the  world,  and  in  no 
times,  ancient  or  modern,  has  a  Nation,  when  rendered  all 
unready  for  the  combat  by  the  enjoyment  of  eighty  years 
of  almost  unbroken  peace,  so  quickly  awakened  at  the 
alarm  of  sedition,  put  forth  energies  so  vigorous,  and 
achieved  success  so  signal  and  effective  as  those  which 
have  marked  the  progress  of  this  contest  on  the  part  of 
the  Union.     .     .     . 

"At  the  same  time,  it  is  manifest  to  the  world  that  our 
resources  are  yet  abundant,  and  our  credit  adequate  to  the 
existing  emergency. 

"  The  Government  has  not  shut  out  the  knowledge  of 
the  present  temper,  any  more  than  of  the  past  purposes, 
of  the  insurgents.  There  is  not  the  least  ground  to  sup- 
pose that  the  controlling  actors  would  be  persuaded  at 
this  moment,  by  any  arguments  which  national  commis- 
sioners could  oifer,  to  forego  the  ambition  that  has  impelled 
them  to  the  disloyal  position  they  are  occupying. 

"On  the  other  hand,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  this 
Government  has  not  the  least  thought  of  relinquishing  the 
trust  which  has  been  confided  to  it  by  the  Nation  under 
the  most  solemn  of  all  political  sanctions;  and  if  it  had 
any  such  thought,  it  would  still  have  abundant  reason  to 
know  that  peace  proposed  at  the  cost  of  dissolution  would 
be  immediately,  unreservedly,  and  indignantly  rejected 
by  the  American  people.  It  is  a  great  mistake  that 
European  statesmen  make,  if  they  suppose  this  people  are 
demoralized." 

But  this  evil  and  unstatesman-like  meddling  on 
the  part  of  France  was  not  without  its  bad  influence 


206  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

on  the  discontented  in  the  North,  or  its  encourage- 
ments to  the  Rebellion.  In  the  fall  of  1862  the 
elections  went  against  the  Administration.  In  New 
York  Horatio  Seymour,  a  meddlesome  "  Peace  Dem- 
ocrat," was  elected  Governor  by  several  thousand 
majority.  And  in  most  other  States  where  local  and 
Congressional  elections  were  held  there  seemed  to  be 
a  verdict  against  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
in  favor  of  letting  the  Union  go  by  default.  A  very 
considerable  element  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
was  opposed  to  a  continuance  of  the  war,  mainly 
basing  its  opposition  on  its  teachings  and  sentiments 
as  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  the  rebels. 
But  the  emancipation  policy  of  the  President  was' 
distasteful  in  other  quarters.  In  the  border  Slave 
States,  which  had  been  held  partly  by  patriotism  and 
partly  by  diplomacy  and  main  force,  from  going  into 
the  Rebellion,  a  strong  reaction  set  in  against  the 
Administration,  carrying  with  it  nearly  the  entire 
population.  The  abolition  test  was  too  much  for 
them.  But  this  was  never  wonderful  in  the  midst  of 
slavery,  when  in  the  free  North  the  negro  question 
was  often  more  than  a  match  for  the  material  of 
which  some  patriots  were  made.  In  the  Northern 
elections  in  1863  the  issue  was  plainly  made  for  or 
against  the  continuance  of  the  war.  And  here,  after 
all,  it  may  be  said,  the  great  battles  for  the  perpe- 
tuity of  the  Union  were  fought.  These  were  the 
decisive  conflicts.  The  defeat  of  the  Administration 
of  the  Government  at  the  polls,  in  the  section  from 
which  it  drew   all  its   financial  and  military  power, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN".  207 

would   have   implied   defeat   in    the  struggle  on  the 
battle-fields  of  the  South. 

Who  were  the  allies  of  the  South  and  the  enemies 
of  the  National  Union  in  these  conflicts  at  the  North  ? 
Early  in  the  spring  of  1863  general  State  elections 
were  held  in  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Connecticut ;  in  the  first  of  which  the  anti-war  Dem- 
ocratic candidate  for  governor  had  a  plurality  of 
votes  over  the  Republican,  but  the  anti-secession  or 
war  wing  of  the  Democracy  had  a  candidate,  and  the 
election  was  thrown  into  the  Legislature,  where  the 
Republicans  were  able  to  save  their  governor  and 
State  on  the  side  of  the  Union.  In  the  other  two 
States  the  contest  was  close,  the  Republicans  suc- 
ceeding by  reduced  majorities.  No  more  bitter  and  • 
desperately  contested  elections  were,  perhaps,  ever 
held  in  New  England.  And,  although  the  Admin- 
istration party  was  successful,  the  tide  was  then 
evidently  against  its  policy  and  against  the  war. 
The  bloody  conflict  which  Franklin  Pierce  and  others 
predicted  would  be  fought  by  the  friends  of  the  South, 
of  slavery,  on  the  streets  of  the  cities  of  the  North, 
were  merely,  mainly,  transferred  to  the  polls.  The 
w-ar  was  declared  to  be  a  failure,  and  all  the  measures 
and  promises  of  the  Administration  were  condemned, 
and  every  effort  possible  put  forth  to  weaken  its 
strength  and  thwart  its  purposes.  And  in  spite  of 
all  the  derision  and  curses  of  the  South  for  Northern 
sympathy  and  pretensions,  and  the  oft-repeated 
pledges  of  the  Southern  leaders  to  oppose  all  over- 
tures for  reunion,  and  hold  to  their  determination  to 


208  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

fight  on  to  the  death  of  one  or  both  parties,  these 
preached  the  possibility  of  conciliation  and  thereby 
restoration  of  the  Union.  An  idle  pretense,  as  most 
of  the  anti-war  Democrats  very  well  knew.  The  two 
years  of  war  had  only  deepened  the  determination 
of  the  leaders  of  the  atrocious  Rebellion  to  fight  on. 
They  said : — 

"  The  Yankees  ought  to  know  by  this  time  what  we 
mean.  Democrats  or  Lincolnites,  we  hate  them  all  alike. 
We  are  not  going  to  submit  to  a  lecherous  union  with 
either.  We  despise  equally  the  Black  Republican  Aboli- 
tionists and  the  Copperhead  political  tricksters.  We  hold 
at  equal  value  the  threats  of  the  one  and  the  fawning 
humbuggery  of  the  other.  Sharp  at  a  trade,  let  them 
understand  unmistakably  that  we  have  nothing  to  swap, 
least  of  all  have  we  any  intention  of  swapping  ourselves. 
They  must  carry  their  vile  wares  to  some  other  market." 

Still  the  anti-war,  the  peace  party,  and  the  North- 
ern sympathizer  went  on,  losing  no  opportunity  to 
obstruct  the  operations  of  the  Government,  or  to  stop 
the  war  entirely,  whatever  the  consequences.  Con- 
gress had  provided  for  the  enrollment  of  all  the  able- 
bodied  men,  not  omiting  aliens  who  had  declared 
their  intentions  to  become  citizens,  between  the  ages 
of  eighteen  and  forty-five,  with  the  view  of  filling 
the  deficient  quotas  under  the  new  calls  for  troops 
by  drafting.  And,  notwithstanding  the  object  of  the 
conscription  was  to  fill  the  army,  a  strange  provision 
was  made  for  receiving  three  hundred  dollars  as  a 
commutation  fee,  in  lieu  of  the  service  of  the  drafted 
man.     This  measure   now  became   the  special  object 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  209 

of  hatred  to  the  opposition  party,  or  anti-war  Dem- 
ocrats, and  they  set  about  obstructing  the  necessary 
arrangements  of  the  President  to  carry  it  out.  One 
of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York, 
and  Justice  Woodward  and  the  other  Democratic 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania  de- 
chired  the  whole  measure  and  all  the  efforts  to  carry 
it  out  "  unconstitutional."  To  prevent  the  filling  up 
of  the  old  armies,  or  the  formation  of  a  new  force  at 
the  North,  was  even  a  greater  defeat  to  the  cause  of 
the  Union  than  a  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  rebels 
on  the  battle-field.  The  adverse  moral  effect  was 
much  greater.  It  was  weakening  the  Government 
and  strengthening  the  Rebellion.  For  whatever  pur- 
pose all  this  opposition  was  designed,  it  had  but  one 
effect,  harassing  and  weakening  the  Government, 
decreasing  foreign  confidence,  and  incrensing  the  evil 
inclinntions  of  certain  foreign  powers,  and  strengthen- 
ing and  encournging  the  Rebellion.  This  verdict 
time  can  never  erase.  It  is  not  for  the  historian  to 
attempt  a  palliatory  plea,  if  he  would.  History 
neither  forgets  nor  forgives.  The  war  record  of  the 
Democratic  pnrty,  as  an  organization,  is  without 
apology,  and  mainly  infamous.  It  is  a  span  which 
should,  in  practice,  in  the  reconstructed  and  regen- 
erated Republic,  go  into  oblivion.  The  two  good 
ends  of  the  old  party,  broken,  lie  on  each  side  of  this 
chasm  of  madness. 

The  Fourth  of  July,  in  186B,  as  far  as  could  be 
in  the  loyal  States,  was  made  the  occasion  of  giving 
a  new  impulse  to  patriotic  energy.     But  the  leaders 

14— Q 


210  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  the  opposition  gave  to  their  oratory  a  peculiar 
direction,  and  divergent  to  the  current  of  patriotic 
fervor,  which  in  song,  speech,  and  act  rolled  in  a 
torrent  against  the  Rebellion.  And,  to  some  extent, 
even  this  occasion  of  reunion  and  national  euloirium 
was  turned  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  country,  in 
weakening  the  faith  of  the  people  in  the  Administra- 
tion, and  strengthening  the  disposition  to  resist  its 
measuies  for  preserving  the  Union. 

But  Horatio  Seymour,  and  hosts  of  others,  in  their 
speeches  and  acts,  and  many  of  the  leading  opposition 
newspapers  were  preparing  the  way  for  the  riotous 
resistance  to  the  Government  which  immediately 
followed  the  enormous  pretensions  of  the  "glorious 
Fourth." 

On  the  13th  of  July  the  draft  began  in  New 
York.  Governor  Seymour  had  said  the  measure 
was  unconstitutional,  and  some  of  the  silly  news- 
papers had  said  the  draft  act  was  designed  by  the 
miscreants  at  the  head  of  the  Government  to  lessen 
the  number  of  Democratic  votes  at  the  next  election. 
Forgetful  of  what  the  whole  man-population  of  the 
South  was  submitting  to  for  the  overthrow  of  the 
Union,  the  greatest  excitement  was  raised  throughout 
the  North  over  the  draft.  State  Rights,  habeas  corpus, 
personal  liberty,  the  Constitution,  everything  was 
conjured  up,  and  no  effort  spared  to  fire  the  Northern 
heart  against  it  by  the  opposition  leaders.  And  not 
without  effect. 

Incendiary  hand-bills  had  been  circulated  through 
the  parts  of  New  York  City  most  likely  to   be   in- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  211 

fluenced  by  them,  and  a  time  fixed  for  beginning  a 
bloody  resistance  to  the  draft,  but  no  very  great  out- 
break occurred  until  Monday,  July  13,  1863.  The 
attention  of  the  rioters  was  first  mainly  directed  to- 
ward the  enrolling  and  draft  offices  which  were 
sacked  and  burned,  and  some  of  the  officers  killed. 
The  negro  Orphan  Asylum  on  Forty-sixth  Street 
was  sacked  and  burned.  The  residences  and  busi- 
ness houses  of  obnoxious  persons  were  served  in  the 
same  way,  and  for  the  greater  part  of  four  days  the 
fiendish  mob  had  the  city  in  its  grasp.  The  hun- 
dreds of  infernal  saloons,  recruiting  offices  of  Hell, 
were  its  head-quarters,  and  from  these  the  thousands 
of  whisky-maddened  wretches  sallied  forth  to  their 
work  of  plunder,  arson,  and  murder.  Wherever  the 
mob  went  the  firemen  followed,  and  where  they  were 
allowed  to  do  so  they  used  some  exertion  to  stop 
the  spread  of  the  fire.  But  there  seemed  to  be  an 
understanding  between  the  firemen  and  the  rioters. 
The  manufactories  and  workshops  were  closed  by  the 
mob  and  the  hands  ordered  into  its  ranks.  A  vast 
army  of  wretched  and  wicked  women  and  children 
followed  this  brutal  mass  for  carrying  to  their  miser- 
able homes  the  spoils  from  the  hands  of  sons  and 
husbands. 

On  Tuesday  the  Governor  came  into  the  city,  and 
addressed  the  mob.  He  said  it  was  made  of  his 
friends.  He  told  the  rioters  that  he  had  sent  to 
Washington  to  have  the  draft  stopped,  and  hence 
they  should  disperse  and  be  good  citizens  until  his 
agent  came   back,  and   then  they  could    reassemble 


212  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

when  they  pleased.  However  well-meant  were  the 
Governor's  efforts,  his  words  were  badly  chosen,  and 
left  the  impression  of  an  implied  conditional  sanction 
of  the  ^ause  of  the  rioters.  The  draft  must  be 
stopped.  It  was  charging  the  draft  with  the  riot. 
At  all  events  the  Governor  did  not  influence  the 
conduct  of  these  his  friends. 

Now,  from  Gettysburg  came  the  New  York  militia 
and  several  regiments  of  regulars,  by  order  of  the 
Government,  and  Thursday,  the  16th,  ended  the  riot, 
but  not  until  several  hundred,  a  thousand  perhaps, 
of  the  rioters  had  been  slain.  In  Boston  and  several 
other  places  at  the  same  time  some  attempts  at  re- 
sistance were  made,  but  they  were  of  little  con- 
sequence comparatively.  The  draft  went  on,  as  did 
the  subsequent  one  in  October,  and  there  was  no 
disturbance  of  much  public  note.  But  at  all  times 
and  wherever  resistance  was  made  to  this  seeming 
necessity  of  the  Government,  it  was  done  by  foreign- 
born  citizens,  and  usually  of  the  more  recent  im- 
portations. And  while  it  is  also  true  that  the  New 
York  and  other  rioters  were  mainly  of  the  lowest  Irish 
Catholics,  it  will  not  be  forgotten  that  the  teachers 
in  the  Church,  the  bishops  and  priests,  used  all  their 
influence  on  the  side  of  order  and  obedience  to  the 
Government;  most  of  them,  perhaps,  being  zealous 
patriots. 

The  New  York  Democratic  organizations  were 
now  especially  loud  in  denouncing  the  Government, 
in  declaring  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  draft  law, 
and  urged  the  Governor  to  resist  it  by  the   military 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  213 

power  of  the  State.  This  again  led  Mr.  Seymour  to 
put  himself  on  unenviable  record  by  a  long  letter  to 
the  President,  on  the  3d  of  August,  asking  the  draft 
to  be  stopped,  and  at  least  until  its  "  Constitution- 
ality "  be  further  tested.  The  President  wrote  an 
answer  four  days  afterwards,  and  in  it  are  these 
cutting  words ; — 

"  I  do  not  object  to  abide  a  decision  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  or  of  the  Judges  thereof,  on  the 
Constitutionality  of  the  draft  law.  In  fact,  I  should  be 
willing  to  facilitate  the  obtaining  of  it.  But  I  can  not 
consent  to  lose  the  time  while  it  is  being  obtained.  We 
are  contending  with  an  enemy  who,  as  I  understand, 
drives  every  able-bodied  man  he  can  reach  into  his  ranks, 
very  much  as  a  butcher  drives  bullocks  into  a  slaughter- 
pen.  No  time  is  wasted,  no  argument  is  used.  This  pro- 
duces an  army  which  will  soon  turn  upon  our  now  victori- 
ous soldiers  already  in  the  field,  if  they  shall  not  be 
sustained  by  recruits  as  they  should  be.  It  produces  an 
army  with  a  rapidity  not  to  be  matched  on  our  side,  if 
we  first  waste  time  to  re-experiraent  with  the  volunteer 
system,  already  deemed  by  Congress,  and  palpably,  in  fact, 
so  far  exhausted  as  to  be  inadequate;  and  then  more  time 
to  obtain  a  court  decision  as  to  whether  a  law  is  Constitu- 
tional which  requires  a  part  of  those  not  now  in  the  serv- 
ice to  go  to  the  aid  of  those  who  are  already  in 'it;  and 
still  more  time  to  determine  with  absolute  certainty  that 
we  get  those  who  are  to  go  in  the  precisely  legal  propor- 
tion to  those  who  are  not  to  go.  My  purpose  is  to  be  in 
my  action  just  and  Constitutional,  and  yet  practical,  in 
performing  the  important  duty  with  which  I  am  charged, 
of  maintaining  the  unity  and  free  principles  of  our  com- 
mon country.  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  A.  Lincoln." 


214  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Several  test  cases  as  to  the  Constitutionality  of 
the  Enrollment  Act  and  the  draft  were  subsequently- 
made  under  Circuit  and  District  Judges,  and  all  of 
them  affirming  the  act;  and  Judge  Daniel  Agnew, 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  reversed  the  decisions  of  his  Democratic  prede- 
cessor, whom  he  also  defeated  by  a  large  majority  in 
the  election  of  1863,  said  : — 

"The  Constitutional  authority  to  use  the  national  forces 
creates  a  corresponding  duty  to  provide  a  number  adequate 
to  the  necessity.  .  .  .  Power  and  duty  now  go  hand 
in  hand  with  the  extremity,  until  every  available  man 
in  the  Nation  is  called  into  service,  if  the  emergency 
requires  it." 

The  most  apocryphal  era  of  American  politics  is 
that  embracing  the  transition  from  slavery  to  free- 
dom, from  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act 
to  the  end  of  Andrew  Johnson's  Administration. 
Political  pretensions  were  then  on  the  most  stupen- 
dous scale.  And  only  in  the  light  of  results  and  after 
events  do  they  appear  at  their  true  value.  In  1860 
there  arose  the  cry  of  "  The  Constitution  as  it  is,  and 
the  Union  as  it  was."  But  this  did  not  reach  the 
key  in  •  which  the  spirit  of  the  times  was  really 
pitched.  And  long  ago,  every  man  knows,  this 
specious  shibboleth  was  numbered  among  the  legends 
of  the  visionary  past.  One  of  the  most  glaring  frauds 
of  this  period  was  the  everlasting  play  on  the  word 
"  Constitution  "  on  the  part  of  the  ''  Opposition."  All 
acts  that  restrained  them  from  doing  what  they  de- 
sired, or  compelled  them  to   do  what  they  did  not 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  215 

desire, were  "unconstitutional."  Even  to  breathe  a 
thought  against  slavery  was  "  unconstitutional."  But 
to  schema  for  its  extension  and  against  freedom,  was 
ever  in  harmony  with  the  nature  of  Magna  Charta. 
Coercion  was  rankly  "unconstitutional."  To  fight 
against  secession  at  all  was  "unconstitutional."  If 
moral  suasion  could  not  preserve  the  Union,  nothing 
else  would,  for  everything  else  was  "  unconstitu- 
tional." To  interfere  with  the  liberties  of  men,  even 
when  they  were  using  them  against  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  was  "  unconstitutional."  Only  universal 
license  and  habeas  corpus  were  Constitutional.  The 
blackest  of  all  "  unconstitutional "  things  was  a 
thought  or  act  looking  toward  the  immediate  or  ulti- 
mate overthrow  of  African  slavery.  So  it  went  on 
to  the  smallest  and  greatest  of  things,  until  "  uncon- 
stitutional "  became  a  by-word.  And  as  such  it  has 
gone  into  the  history  of  the  times,  as  suggestive  of 
the  most  insincere,  immoral,  and  treacherous  period 
of  American  politics.  That  this  charge  and  crime 
should  be  allowed  to  pass  in  comparative  silence  and 
forgetfulness  is  one  of  the  great  political  virtues  of 
to-day. 

Early  in  the  fall  of  1861  the  grand  jury  presented 
to  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  in  New  York  sev- 
eral newspapers  of  that  city  as  aiders  and  abettors 
of  the  Rebellion.  In  this  presentation  the  jury  made 
this  unanswerable  statement : — 

"The  grand  jury  are  aware  that  free  governments 
allow  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press  to  their  utmost 
limit,  but  there  is  nevertheless  a  limit.     If  a  person  in  a 


216  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

fortress  or  an  array  were  to  preach  to  the  soldiers  submis- 
sion to  the  enemy  he  would  be  treated  as  an  offender. 
Would  he  be  more  culpable  than  the  citizen  who,  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  formidable  conspiracy  and  Rebellion, 
tells  the  conspirators  and  rebels  that  they  are  right,  en- 
courages them  to  persevere  in  resistance,  and  condemns  the 
effort  of  loyal  citizens  to  overcome  and  punish  them  as  an 
"unholy  war?"  If  the  utterance  of  such  language  in  the 
streets  or  through  the  press  is  not  a  crime,  then  there  is  a 
great  defect  in  our  laws,  or  they  were  not  made  for  such 
an  emergency." 

By  order  of  the  Postmaster-General  some  of  the 
papers  were  soon  after  taken  from  the  mails  or  for- 
bidden to  be  allowed  to  pass  through  them.  Even 
the  publication  of  some  of  them  was  stopped.  At 
different  times,  the  most  offensive  and  criminal  of 
these  Democratic  papers  were  suppressed.  In  the 
spring  of  1864  two  of  them  in  New  York  City  pub- 
lished a  forged  proclamation  of  the  President  calling 
for  four  hundred  thousand  soldiers,  w^hich  led  to  their 
seizure  for  a  time  by  order  of  the  War  Department. 
About  this  time,  too,  one  of  the  Cincinnati  papers 
was  wholly  or  partially  suppressed  by  the  order  of 
the  general  commanding  in  the  department.  In 
Baltimore  and  other  cities  the  same  fate  befell  evil- 
doers. But  all  this  brought  curses  upon  the  Admin- 
istration, and  set  loose  another  deluge  of  the  "uncon- 
stitutional" talk  and  bluster, and  although  the  "aiding 
and  abetting"  were  checked  in  certain  channels  they 
broke  out  more  virulently  in  others  where  the  risks 
were  less  or  the  recklessness  greater. 

The  Governor  of  New  York  was  up  in  arms  at 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  217 

once.     In  a  letter  to  the  District  Attorney   of  the 
County  of  New  York  he  wrote  : — 

"  I  call  upon  you  to  look  into  the  facts  connected  with 
the  seizure  of  *  The  Journal  of  Commerce'  and  of  'The 
New  York  World.'  If  these  acts  were  illegal,  the 
offenders  must  be  punished." 

So  the  necessary  steps  were  taken,  but  the  grand 
jury  declined  to  act  in  the  premises  against  the 
Government.  The  Governor  was  not  to  be  thwarted 
in  that  way.  He  ordered  some  magistrate  to  be 
found  who  could  get  the  case  on,  and  vindicate  the 
trampled  rights  of  citizens  to  do  what  injury  to  the 
country  their  misguided  judgments  directed.  General 
John  A.  Dix  and  several  other  officers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment were  accordingly  arrested,  but  being  soon 
after  released,  the  case  ended.  In  the  District  At- 
torney's report  or  affidavit,  he  said  that  he  believed 
that  "Hon.  A.  Lincoln"  had  actually  been  a  party 
to  the  "  unconstitutional "  acts  in  directing  "  John  A. 
Dix"  to  feloniously  order  one  William  Hays  to  com- 
mand some  other  persons  to  go  armed  and  equipped 
against  these  good  newspapers  in  the  quiet  prosecu- 
tion of  their  Constitutional  privileges. 

In  Congress  this  matter  was  brought  up,  and 
resolutions  introduced  in  both  Houses  declaring  that 
the  seizure  of  the  two  New  York  papers  "  was  an  act 
unwarranted  in  itself,  dangerous  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union,  in  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  subver- 
sive of  the  principles  of  civil  liberty,  and  as  such  is 
hereby  censured."  But  these  resolutions  were  not 
acted  upon,  and  all  loyal   people  thought  them,  like 


218  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  cause  they  were  designed,  to  defend,  dangerous 
to  the  interests  of  the  Union.  And  so  these  foohsh 
and  wicked  matters  went  on  to  the  end.  And  so, 
between  the  "enemies  in  the  rear"  and  the  enemies 
on  the  battle-field,  the  Administration  and  the  loyal 
people  went  on  in  the  work  before  them.  Scarcely 
had  the  resolutions  mentioned  here  been  disposed  of 
forever  before  the  following  was  submitted  to  the 
House : — 

"Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  be 
instructed  to  inquire  and  report  what,  if  any,  additional 
legislation  may  be  necessary  to  punish  the  forgery  and 
publication  of  official  documents,  and  what  legislation  is 
necessary  to  punish  those  who,  through  the  press  or  other- 
wise, give  information,  aid,  or  comfort  to  the  rebels." 

About  this  time  the  President  was  engaged  in  a 
personal  combat  with  the  "Opposition"  aiders  and 
abettors  in  Ohio  and  other  States,  over  habeas  corpus, 
and  "  unconstitutional "  arrests,  briefly  referred  to  in 
other  chapters. 

In  reply  to  some  resolutions  and  a  letter  from 
Albany,  New  York,  concerning  "  arbitrary  arrests," 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  considered  it  proper  for  him  to 
make,  is  the  following  extract,  constituting  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  remarkable  letter,  dated  June 
12,  1863  :— 

"  Prior  to  ray  installation  here  it  had  been  inculcated  that 
any  State  had  a  lawful  right  to  secede  from  the  National  Union, 
and  that  it  would  be  expedient  to  exercise  the  right  whenever 
the  devotees  of  the  doctrine  should  fail  to  elect  a  President  to 
their  own  liking.     I  was  elected  contrary  to  their  liking ;  and, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  219 

accordingly,  so  far  as  it  was  legally  possible,  they  had  taken 
seven  States  out  of  the  Union,  had  seized  many  of  the  United 
States  forts,  and  had  fired  upon  the  United  States  flag,  all  be- 
fore I  was  inaugurated,  and,  of  course,  before  I  had  done  any 
official  act  whatever.  The  Rebellion  thus  began  soon  ran  into  the 
present  civil  war  ;  and,  in  certain  respects,  it  began  on  very  un- 
equal terms  between  the  parties.  The  insurgents  had  been  pre- 
paring for  it  more  than  thirty  years,  while  the  Government 
had  taken  no  steps  to  resist  them.  The  former  had  carefully 
considered  all  the  means  which  could  be  turned  to  their  account. 
It  undoubtedly  was  a  well-pondered  reliance  with  them  that  in 
their  own  unrestricted  efforts  to  destroy  Union,  Constitution, 
and  law  altogether,  the  Government  would,  in  great  degree, 
be  restrained  by  the  same  Constitution  and  law  from  arresting 
their  progress.  Their  sympathizers  pervaded  all  departments  of 
the  Government  and  nearly  all  communities  of  the  people. 
From  this  material,  under  cover  of  '  liberty  of  speech,'  '  liberty 
of  the  press,'  and  ^habeas  corpus,'  they  hoped  to  keep  on  foot 
amongst  us  a  most  efficient  corps  of  spies,  informers,  suppliers, 
and  aiders  and  abettors  of  their  cause  in  a  thousand  ways. 
They  knew  that  in  times  such  as  they  were  inaugurating,  by 
the  Constitution  itself  the  ^habeas  corpus '  might  be  suspended ; 
but  they  also  knew  they  had  friends  who  would  make  a 
question  as  to  who  was  to  suspend  it ;  meanwhile  their  spies 
and  others  might  remain  at  large  to  help  on  their  cause.  Or 
if,  as  has  happened,  the  Executive  should  suspend  the  writ, 
without  ruinous  waste  of  time,  instances  of  arresting  innocent 
persons  might  occur,  as  are  always  likely  to  occur  in  such 
cases  ;  and  then  a  clamor  could  be  raised  in  regard  to  this,  which 
might  be,  at  least,  of  some  service  to  the  insurgent  cause.  It 
needed  no  very  keen  perception  to  discover  this  part  of  the 
enemy's  program,  so  soon  as  by  open  hostilities  their  machinery 
was  fairly  put  in  motion.  Yet,  thoroughly  imbued  with  a 
reverence  for  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals,  I  was  slow 
to  adopt  the  strong  measures  which  by  degrees  I  have  been 
forced  to  regard  as  being  within  the  exceptions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, and  as  indispensable  to  the  public  safety.  Nothing  is 
better  known  to  history  than  that  courts  of  justice  are  utterly 
incompetent  to  such  cases.     Civil  courts  are  organized  chiefly  for 


220  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

trials  of  individuals,  or,  at  most,  a  few  individuals  acting  in 
concert ;  and  this  in  quiet  times,  and  on  charges  of  crimes  well 
defined  in  the  law.  Even  in  times  of  peace  bands  of  horse- 
thieves  and  robbers  frequently  grow  too  numerous  and  powerful 
for  ordinary  courts  of  justice.  But  what  comparison,  in  num- 
bers, have  such  bands  ever  borne  to  the  insurgent  sympathizers 
even  in  many  of  the  loyal  States?  Again,  a  jury  too  frequently 
has  at  least  one  member  more  ready  to  hang  the  panel  than  to 
hang  the  traitor.  And  yet,  again,  he  who  dissuades  one  man 
from  volunteering,  or  induces  one  soldier  to  desert,  weakens  the 
Union  cause  as  much  as  he  who  kills  a  Union  soldier  in  battle. 
Yet  this  dissuasion  or  inducement  may  be  so  conducted  as  to 
be  no  defined  crime  of  which  any  civil  court  would  take 
cognizance. 

"  Ours  is  a  case  of  rebellion — so  called  by  the  resolutions  be- 
fore me — in  fact,  a  clear,  flagrant,  and  gigantic  case  of  rebell- 
ion ;  and  the  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  '  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  conyus  shall  not  be  suspended  unless  when, 
in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require 
it,'  is  ihe  provision  which  specially  applies  to  our  present  case. 
This  provision  plainly  attests  the  understanding  of  those  who 
made  the  Constitution,  that  ordinary  courts  of  justice  are  in- 
adequate to  '  cases  of  rebellion ' — attests  their  purpose  that,  in 
such  cases,  men  may  be  held  in  custody  whom  the  courts, 
acting  on  ordinary  rules,  would  discharge.  Habeas  corpus  does 
not  discharge  men  who  are  proved  to  be  guilty  of  defined 
crime  ;  and  its  suspension  is  allowed  by  the  Constitution  on 
purpose  that  men  may  be  arrested  and  held  who  can  not  be 
proved  to  be  guilty  of  defined  crime,  *  when,  in  cases  of  rebell- 
ion or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  it.' 

"This  is  precisely  our  present  case;  a  case  of  rebellion, 
wherein  the  public  safety  does  require  the  suspension.  Indeed, 
arrests  by  process  of  courts,  and  arrests  in  cases  of  rebellion,  do 
not  proceed  altogether  upon  the  same  basis.  The  former  is  di- 
rected at  the  small  percentage  of  ordinary  and  continuous  per- 
petration of  crime,  while  the  latter  is  directed  at  sudden  and 
extensive  uprisings  against  the  Government,  which,  at  most, 
will  succeed  or  fail  in  no  great  length  of  time.  In  the  latter 
case,  arrests  are  made,  not  so  much  for  what  has  been  done,  as 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  221 

for  what  probably  would  be  done.  The  latter  is  more  for  the 
preventive  and  less  for  the  vindictive  than  the  former.  In 
such  cases  the  purposes  of  men  are  much  more  easily  under- 
stood than  in  cases  of  ordinary  crime.  The  man  who  stands 
by  and  says  nothing  when  the  peril  of  his  Government  is  dis- 
cussed, can  not  be  misunderstood.  If  not  hindered,  he  is  sure 
to  help  the  enemy ;  much  more,  if  he  talks  ambiguously,  talks 
for  his  country  with  'buts'  and  'ifs'  and  '  ands.'  Of  how 
little  value  the  Constitutional  provisions  I  have  quoted  will  be 
rendered  if  arrests  shall  never  be  made  until  defined  crimes 
shall  have  been  committed,  may  be  illustrated  by  a  few  notable 
examples.  General  John  C.  Breckinridge,  General  Robert  E. 
Lee,  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  General  John  B.  Magruder, 
General  William  B.  Preston,  General  Simon  B.  Buckner,  and 
Commodore  Franklin  Buchanan,  now  occupying  the  very  highest 
places  in  tlie  rebel  war  service,  were  all  within  the  power  of  the 
Government  since  the  Rebellion  began,  and  were  nearly  as  well 
known  to  be  traitors  then  as  now.  Unquestionably  if  we  had 
seized  and  held  them,  the  insurgent  cause  would  be  much  weaker. 
But  no  one  of  them  had  then  committed  any  crime  defined  in 
the  law.  Every  one  of  them,  if  arrested,  would  have  bee  it  dis- 
charged on  habeas  corpiis  were  the  writ  allowed  to  operate.  In 
view  of  these  and  similar  cases,  I  think  the  time  not  unlikely 
to  come  when  I  shall  be  blamed  for  having  made  too  few  arrests 
rather  than  too  many." 

The  Ohio  Democracy  now  took  up  this  contest 
where  it  was  dropped  with  the  Albany  Committee, 
and  a  long  review  of  the  whole  case,  dated  June  26th, 
and  signed  by  a  prominent  Democrat  from  each 
Congressional  District,  among  them  being  George 
H.  Pendleton,  was  presented  to  the  President.  To 
this  the  following  reply  was  returned,  dated  June 
29,1863:— 

"  GENTLEivrEN, — The  resolutions  of  the  Ohio  Democratic 
State  Convention,  Avhich   you   present  me,  together  with  your 


222  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

introductory  and  closing  remarks,  being  in  position  and  argu- 
ment mainly  the  same  as  the  resolutions  of  the  Democratic 
meeting  at  Albany,  New  York,  I  refer  you  to  my  response  to 
the  latter  as  meeting  most  of  the  points  in  the  former. 

"This  response  you  evidently  used  in  preparing  your  re- 
marks, and  I  desire  no  more  than  that  it  be  used  with  accuracy. 
In  a  single  reading  of  your  remarks,  I  only  discovered  one  in- 
accuracy in  matter  which  I  suppose  you  took  from  that  paper. 
It  is  where  you  say :  '  The  undersigned  are  unable  to  agree  with 
you  in  the  opinion  you  have  expressed  that  the  Constitution  is 
different  in  time  of  insurrection  or  invasion  from  what  it  is  in 
time  of  peace  and  public  security.' 

"A  recurrence  to  the  paper  will  show  you  that  I  have  not 
expressed  the  opinion  you  suppose.  I  expressed  the  opinion 
that  the  Constitution  is  different  in  its  application  in  cases  of 
rebelHon  or  invasion,  involving  the  public  safety,  from  what  it 
is  in  times  of  profound  peace  and  public  security;  and  this 
opinion  I  adhere  to,  simply  because  by  the  Constitution  itself 
things  may  be  done  in  the  one  case  which  may  not  be  done  in 
the  other. 

*4l  dislike  to  waste  a  word  on  a  merely  personal  point,  but 
I  must  respectfully  assure  you  that  you  will  find  yourselves  at 
fault  should  you  ever  seek  for  evidence  to  prove  your  assump- 
tion that  I  '  opposed  in  discussions  before  the  people  the  policy 
of  the  Mexican  War.' 

"You  say:  'Expunge  from  the  Constitution  this  limitation 
upon  the  power  of  Congress  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
and  yet  the  other  guarantees  of  personal  liberty  would  remain 
unchanged.'  Doubtless  if  this  clause  of  the  Constitution,  im- 
properly called,  as  I  think,  a  limitation  upon  the  power  of 
Congress,  were  expunged,  the  other  guarantees  would  remain 
the  same;  but  the  question  is  not  how  those  guarantees  would 
stand  with  that  clause  out  of  the  Constitution,  but  how  they 
stand  with  that  clause  remaining  in  it,  in  case  of  rebellion  or 
invasion,  involving  the  public  safety.  If  the  liberty  could  be 
indulged  in  expunging  that  clause,  letter  and  spirit,  I  really 
think  the  Constitutional  argument  would  be  with  you. 

"  My  general  view  on  this  question  was  stated  in  the  Albany 
response,  and  hence  I  do  not  state  it  now.     I  only  add  that,  as 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         '  223 

seems  to  me,  the  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  the  great 
means  through  which  the  guarantees  of  personal  liberty  are 
conserved  and  made  available  in  the  last  resort;  and  corrob- 
orative of  this  view  is  the  fact  that  Mr.  Vallaudighara,  in  the 
very  case  in  question,  under  the  advice  of  able  lawyers,  saw  not 
where  else  to  go  but  to  the  habeas  corpus.  But  by  the  Consti- 
tution the  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  itself  may  be 
suspended,  when,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it. 

"  You  ask,  in  substance,  whether  I  really  claim  that  I  may 
override  all  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals,  on  the  plea 
of  conserving  the  public  safety,  when  I  may  choose  to  say  the 
public  safety  requires  it.  This  question,  divested  of  the  phrase- 
ology calculated  to  represent  me  as  struggling  for  an  arbitrary 
personal  prerogative,  is  either  simply  a  question  who  shall  decide, 
or  an  affirmation  that  nobody  shall  decide,  what  the  public 
safety  does  require  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion.  The  Con- 
stitution contemplates  the  question  as  likely  to  occur  for  decision, 
but  it  does  not  expressly  declare  who  is  to  decide  it.  By  nec- 
essary implication,  when  rebellion  or  invasion  conies,  the 
decision  is  to  be  made  from  time  to  time;  and  I  think  the 
man  whom  for  the  time  the  people  have,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, made  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  their  army  and  navy  i& 
the  man  who  holds  the  power  and  bears  the  responsibility  of 
making  it.  If  he  uses  the  power  justly  the  same  people  will 
probably  justify  him ;  if  he  abuses  it  he  is  in  their  hands,  to  be 
dealt  with  by  all  the  modes  they  have  reserved  to  themselves- 
in  the  Constitution. 

"The  earnestness  with  which  you  insist  that  persons  can 
only,  in  times  of  rebellion,  be  lawfully  dealt  with  in  accordance 
with  the  rules  for  criminal  trials  and  punishments  in  times  of 
peace  induces  me  to  add  a  word  to  what  I  said  on  that  point 
in  the  Albany  response.  You  claim  that  men  may,  if  they 
choose,  embarrass  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  combat  a  giant 
rebellion,  and  then  be  dealt  with  only  in  turn  as  if  there  were 
no  rebellion.  The  Constitution  itself  rejects  this  view.  The 
military  arrests  and  detentions  which  have  been  made,  including 
those  of  Mr.  Vallandigham,  which  are  not  different  in  prin- 
ciple from  the  other,  have  been  for  prevention,  and  not  for  pun- 


224  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ishment — as  injunctions  to  stay  injury,  as  proceedings  to  keep 
the  peace — and  hence,  like  proceedings  in  such  cases  and  for 
like  reasons,  they  have  not  been  accompanied  with  indictments 
or  trials  by  juries,  nor  in  a  single  case  by  any  punishment  what- 
ever, beyond  what  is  purely  incidental  to  the  prevention.  The 
original  sentence  of  imprisonment  in  Mr.  Vallandigham's  case 
was  to  prevent  injury  to  the  military  service  only,  and  the 
modification  of  it  was  made  as  a  less  disagreeable  mode  to  him 
of  securing  the  same  prevention. 

"I  am  unable  to  perceive  an  insult  to  Ohio  in  the  case  of 
Mr.  Vallandigham.  Quite  surely  nothing  of  this  sort  was  or 
is  intended.  I  was  wholly  unaware  that  Mr.  Vallandigham 
was,  at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  a  candidate  for  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  Governor,  until  so  informed  by  your  reading  to 
me  the  resolutions  of  the  convention.  I  am  grateful  to  the  State 
of  Ohio  for  many  things,  especially  for  the  brave  soldiers  and 
officers  she  has  given  in  the  present  national  trial  to  the  armies 
of  the  Union. 

"You  claim,  as  I  understand,  that,  according  to  my  own 
position  in  the  Albany  response,  Mr.  Vallandigham  should  be 
released ;  and  this  because,  as  you  claim,  he  has  not  damaged 
the  military  service  by  discouraging  enlistments,  encouraging 
desertions,  or  otherwise;  and  that,  if  he  had,  he  should  be 
turned  over  to  the  civil  authorities  under  the  recent  acts  of 
Congress.  I  certainly  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Vallandigham  has 
specifically  and  by  direct  language  advised  against  enlistments, 
and  in  favor  of  desertion  and  resistance  to  drafting.  We  all 
know  that  combinations,  armed  in  some  instances  to  resist  the 
arrest  of  deserters,  began  several  months  ago;  that  more  recently 
the  like  has  appeared  in  resistance  to  the  enrollment  preparatory 
to  a  draft;  and  that  quite  a  number  of  assassinations  have 
occurred  from  the  same  animus.  These  had  to  be  met  by  mili- 
tary force,  and  this  again  has  led  to  bloodshed  and  death.  And 
now,  under  a  sense  of  responsibility  more  weighty  and  enduring 
than  any  which  is  merely  official,  I  solemnly  declare  my  belief 
that  this  hindrance  of  the  military,  including  maiming  and 
murder,  is  due  to  the  course  in  which  Mr.  Vallandigham  has  been 
engaged,  in  a  greater  degree  than  to  any  other  cause;  and  it  is 
due  to  him  personally  in  a  greater  degree  than  to  any  other  man. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  225 

"These  things  have  been  notorious,  known  to  all,  and,  of 
course,  known  to  Mr.  Vallandigham.  Perhaps  I  would  not  be 
wrong  to  say  they  originated  with  his  especial  friends  and  ad- 
herents. With  perfect  knowledge  of  them  he  has  frequently, 
if  not  constantly,  made  speeches  in  Congress  and  before  popular 
assemblies;  and  if  it  can  be  shown  that,  with  these  things 
staring  him  in  the  face,  he  has  ever  uttered  a  word  of  re- 
buke or  counsel  against  them,  it  will  be  a  fact  greatly  in 
his  favor  with  me,  and  one  of  which,  as  yet,  I  am  totally 
ignorant. 

"When  it  is  known  that  the  whole  burden  of  his  speeches 
has  been  to  stir  up  men  against  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  and 
that  in  the  midst  of  resistance  to  it  he  has  not  been  known 
in  any  instance  to  counsel  against  such  resistance,  it  is  next  to 
impossible  to  repel  the  inference  that  he  has  counseled  directly 
in  favor  of  it. 

"With  all  this  before  their  eyes  the  convention  you  repre- 
sent have  nominated  Mr.  Vallandigham  for  Governor  of  Ohio, 
and  both  they  and  you  have  declared  the  purpose  to  sustain 
the  National  Union  by  all  Constitutional  means.  But,  of  course, 
they  and  you  in  common  reserve  to  yourselves  to  decide  what 
are  Constitutional  means,  and,  unlike  the  Albany  meetihg,  you 
omit  to  state  or  intimate  that,  in  your  opinion,  an  army  is  a 
Constitutional  means  of  saving  the  Union  against  a  rebellion, 
or  even  to  intimate  that  you  are  conscious  of  an  existing 
rebellion  being  in  progress  with  the  avowed  object  of  destroy- 
ing that  very  Union.  At  the  same  time  your  nominee  for 
Governor,  in  whose  behalf  you  appeal,  is  known  to  you  and 
to  the  world  to  declare  against  the  use  of  an  army  to  suppress 
the  rebellion.  Your  own  attitude,  therefore,  encourages  deser- 
tion, resistance  to  the  draft,  and  the  like,  because  it  teaches 
those  who  incline  to  desert  and  to  escape  the  draft  to  believe 
it  is  your  purpose  to  protect  them  and  to  hope  that  you  will 
become  strong  enough  to  do  so. 

"After  a  short  personal  intercourse  with  you,  gentlemen  of 
the  committee,  I  can  not  say  I  think  you  desire  this  effect  to 
follow  your  attitude ;  but  I  assure  you  that  both  friends  and 
enemies  of  the  Union  look  upon  it  in  this  light.  It  is  a  sub- 
stantial hope,  and  by  consequence  a  real  strength  to  the  enemy. 

15— Q 


226  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

It  is  a  false  hope,  and  one  which  you  would  willingly  dispel.  I 
will  make  the  way  exceedingly  easy.  I  send  you  duplicates  of 
this  letter,  in  order  that  you,  or  a  majority,  may,  if  you  choose, 
indorse  your  names  upon  one  of  them,  and  return  it  thus 
indorsed  to  me,  with  the  understanding  that  those  signing 
are  hereby  committed  to  the  following  propositions,  and  to 
nothing  else : — 

"1.  That  there  is  now  a  rebellion  in  the  United  States, 
the  object  and  tendency  of  which  is  to  destroy  the  National 
Union ;  and  that,  in  your  opinion,  an  army  and  navy  are 
Constitutional  means  for  suppressing  that  rebellion. 

"2.  That  no  one  of  you  will  do  anything  which,  in  his  own 
judgment,  will  tend  to  hinder  the  increase  or  favor  the  decrease 
or  lessen  the  efficiency  of  the  army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in 
the  effort  to  suppress  that  rebellion ;  and, 

"3.  That  each  of  you  will,  in  his  sphere,  do  all  he  can  to 
have  the  officers,  soldiers,  and  seamen  of  the  army  and  navy, 
while  engaged  in  the  effort  to  suppress  the  rebellion,  paid,  fed, 
clad,  and  otherwise  well  provided  for  and  supported. 

"And  with  the  further  understanding  that  upon  receiving 
the  letter  and  names  thus  indorsed,  I  will  cause  them  to  be  pub- 
lished, which  publication  shall  be,  within  itself,  a  revocation  of 
the  order  in  relation  to  Mr.  Vallandigham. 

"It  will  not  escape  observation  that  I  consent  to  the  release 
of  Mr.  Vallandigham  upon  terms  not  embracing  any  pledge  from 
him  or  from  others  as  to  what  he  will  or  will  not  do.  I  do 
this  because  he  is  not  present  to  speak  for  himself,  or  to 
authorize  others  to  speak  for  him;  and  hence  I  shall  expect  that 
on  returning  he  would  not  put  himself  practically  in  antagonism 
with  his  friends.  But  I  do  it  chiefly  because  I  thereby  prevail 
on  other  influential  gentlemen  of  Ohio  to  so  define  their  position 
as  to  be  of  immense  value  to  the  army,  thus  more  than  com- 
pensating for  the  consequences  of  any  mistake  in  allowing  Mr. 
Vallandigham  to  return,  so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  public  safety 
will  not  have  suffered  by  it.  Still,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Vallan- 
digham and  all  others,  I  must  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  do  so 
much  as  the  public  service  may  seem  to  require. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  respectfully  yours,  etc., 

"A.  Lincoln." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  227 

None  of  the  committee  signed  the  President's 
duplicates,  nor  were  willing  to  make  any  pledges  for 
themselves,  treating  the  matter  as  an  insult,  and 
making  a  long  and  very  personal  and  acrimonious 
rejoinder,  showing  that  so  far  as  they  were  concerned, 
the  discussion  had  not  only  not  been  productive  of 
good,  but  it  served  to  increase  the  bitterness  of  the  op- 
position, the  Democratic  party,  as  an  organization,  be- 
coming more  and  more  anti-war  as  the  end  approached. 
The  leaders  were  unable  or  uMAvilling  to  distinguish 
between  a  time  of  war  and  a  time  of  peace ;  and 
whether  they  were  willingly  rebellious  and  false,  or 
blindly  sincere,  did  not  matter  in  practice.  That 
they  were  one  or  the  other  time  and  events  proved, 
and,  perhaps,  few  of  those  who  participated  in  this 
falsest  and  maddest  of  all  follies  among  wise  men 
would  care  to  discuss  the  matter  to-day. 

The  elections  soon  came  on,  and  exhibited  a  great 
revulsion  in  public  sentiment.  The  Republican  or 
war  party  was  quite  generally  successful,  reversing 
all  the  unfavorable  indications  of  the  spring  elections, 
and  those  of  the  previous  fall.  General  McClellan 
wrote  a  letter  indorsing  George  W.  Woodward  for 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania  against  Andrew  G.  Curtin, 
the  war  Governor.  Woodward  was  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  who  had  declared 
the  enrollment  act  and  draft  "unconstitutional,"  but 
General  McClellan  said  :  "  Having  some  days  ago, 
had  a  full  conversation  with  Judge  Woodward,  I  find 
that  our  views  agree ;  and  I  regard  his  election  as 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania  called  for  by  the  interests 


228  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  the  Nation."  But  Curtia  was  re-elected  bv  over 
fiteen  thousand  majority.  And  in  Ohio  John  Brough 
defeated  C.  L.  Vallandigham  by  over  one  hundred 
thousand  votes.  In  1862  New  York  had  gone  for 
Seymour  by  ten  thousand,  and  now  the  reaction  in 
that  State  gave  the  war  party  a  majority  of  thirty 
thousand.  So  in  Massachusetts  and  other  Eastern 
States  the  majorities  were  large,  as  they  were  also 
throughout  the  West.  The  draft  riots  had  had  their 
effect;  the  earnest,  cutting  letters  of  the  President 
had  their  effect ;  Gettysburg,  Vicksburg,  and  Port 
Hudson  had  had  their  effect;  and  the  words  and 
deeds  of  the  malcontent  "  Opposition  "  leaders  had  all 
conspired  to  swell  the  Republican  successes  in  the 
fall  of  1863.  This  election  was  a  verdict  in  support 
of  the  policy  of  the  Administration,  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  and  all,  and  of  the  continuance  of  the 
war  until  the  Rebellion  was  overthrown.  It  also 
pointed  unmistakably  to  the  utter  defeat  of  the  De- 
mocracy in  the  Presidential  contest  of  1864. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  229 


CHAPTER  X. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 

EMANCIPATION— THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLA- 

TION— MR.  LINCOLN  AND  HIS  DEED. 

IN  former  chapters  of  these  volumes  the  early 
course  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration  in  refer- 
ence to  slavery  has  been  given  with  sufficient  full- 
ness, perhaps ;  and  an  effort  has  been  made  through- 
out to  omit  nothing  which  would  seem  necessary  to 
convey  an  accurate  idea  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personnl 
views  and  feelings,  when  entering  upon  the  Presi- 
dency, on  this  most  important  subject  as  related  to 
the  crisis  then  reached  in  the  Nation's  history.  That 
he  had  no  design  of  interfering  with  slavery  in  the 
States  where  it  existed,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  He 
only  hoped  during  his  term  of  office  to  see  it  con- 
fined within  the  bounds  it  then  occupied,  and  the 
original  idea  of  its  ultimate  extinction  in  the  Union 
established  as  the  sentiment  of  the  country.  This 
was,  indeed,  the  extent  of  the  ambition  of  the  Re- 
publican leaders.  It  was  all  they  really  desired  or 
hoped  to  accomplish.  That  there  would  be  a  long 
and  bloody  war,  which  should  make  general  and  im- 
mediate emancipation  a  national  necessity,  he  never 
believed,  did  not  even  think  or  dream  it.  And  when 
he  entered  upon  his  office,  he  and   his  Cabinet,  and 


230  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  part}''  leaders  generally,  made  extraordinary  ef- 
forts to  exhibit  to  the  slaveholding  and  already  re- 
bellious quarter,  their  disposition  to  keep  their  hands 
off  the  "  institution."  And  long  after  the  war  had 
begun  the  Administration  seemed  determined  to  let 
slavery  severely  alone,  the  officers  in  the  army 
taking  courses  in  dealing  with  it  either  in  keeping 
with  their  own  sentiments,  or  with  their'  views  of 
theprobable  desires  and  intentions  of  the  Adminis- 
tration. 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  whatever 
else  Mr.  Lincoln  did  for  the  destruction  of  slavery, 
came  out  of  the  supposed  necessities  of  the  times,  and 
were  the  results  of  a  gradual  development  of  public 
affairs.  During  the  special  session  of  Congress  in 
the  summer  of  1861,  there  was  displayed  an  evident 
timidity  on  the  part  of  the  Republican  leaders  in  ap- 
proaching the  subject  of  slavery,  and  only  the  more 
bold  of  the  old  Abolitionists,  like  Owen  Lovejoy, 
ventured  to  touch  the  dangerous  theme  at  all.  But 
by  the  first  of  December,  when  Congress  began  to 
assemble  in  regular  session,  public  sentiment  and  ne- 
cessity had  prepared  the  way  for  action.  Having 
begun  the  work.  Congress  moved  gradually  forward 
until  the  great  national  enemy  was  dead. 

Probably  Mr.  Lincoln  had  never  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  do  anything  which  gave  him  so  much 
gratification  as  the  approving  of  the  acts  abolishing 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  prohibiting 
slavery  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  Nation;  and  cer- 
tainly since   the  signing  of  the    Declaration  of  Inde- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  231 

pendence  and  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and 
formation  of  the  Federal  Government,  no  American 
had  had  the  opportunity  to  do  so  great  an  act.  Still 
he  kept  pace  with  Congress  with  much  anxiety  as  to 
the  effex3t  of  his  course.  Never  having  been  actuated 
by  the  sentiments  and  motives  of  mere  Abolitionism, 
he  was  now  mainly  influenced  at  every  step  by  the 
single  thought  of  defeating  the  rebels  and  saving  the 
Union.  This  he  made  the  test  of  all  his  acts.  He 
had  no  ambition  to  go  down  in  history  as  the  Great 
Liberator.  Events  made  him  do  what'  he  did,  and 
yet  what  he  was  thus  enabled  to  become  to  his 
country  and  to  four  millions  of  the  colored  race,  gave 
him  more  satisfaction  than  it  did  any  other  man  in 
America. 

General  David  Hunter  issued  the  following  orders 
at  Fort  Pulaski  and  Hilton  Head : — 

"  All  persons  of  color  lately  held  to  involuntary  serv- 
ice by  enemies  of  the  United  States,  in  Fort  Pulaski,  and 
on  Cockspur  Island,  Georgia,  are  hereby  confiscated  and 
declared  free,  in  conformity  with  law,  and  shall  hereafter 
receive  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor.  Such  of  said  persons 
of  color  as  are  able-bodied,  and  may  be  required,  shall 
be  employed  in  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  at  the 
rate  heretofore  established  by  Brigadier-General  W.  T. 
Sherman." 

"Head-quarters,  Department  of  the  South,) 
"  Hilton  Head,  S.  C,  May  9,  1862.         / 

"  [GENERAL  ORDERS,  NO.  11.] 

"The  three  States  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Car- 
olina, comprising  the  Military  Department  of  the  South, 
having  deliberately  declared   themselves  no  longer  under 


232  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  protection  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  having 
taken  up  arms  against  the  said  United  States,  it  becomes 
a  military  necessity  to  declare  them  under  martial  law. 
This  was  accordingly  done  on  the  2-5th  day  of  April,  1862. 
Slavery  and  martial  law,  in  a  free  country,  are  altogether 
incompatible.  The  persons  in  these  tiiree  States — Georgia, 
Florida,  and  South  Carolina — heretofore  held  as  slaves, 
are  therefore  declared  forever  free. 

"  David  Hunter,  Major-General  Commanding. 
"Official:     Ed.  AV.  Smith,  Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General." 

Ten  days  after  the  date  of  this  order,  the  Presi- 
dent issued  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  revoked  the 
action  of  General  Hunter  in  these  words : — 

"And  whereas,  The  same  is  producing  some  excite- 
ment and  misunderstanding: 

"  Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  proclaim  and  declare  that  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  had  no  knowledge  or  belief  of  an  intention, 
on  the  part  of  General  Hunter,  to  issue  such  a  proclama- 
tion, nor  has  it  yet  any  authentic  information  that  the 
document  is  genuine;  and,  further,  that  neither  General 
Hunter  nor  any  other  commander,  or  person,  has  been 
authorized  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to 
make  proclamation  declaring  the  slaves  of  any  State  free, 
and  that  the  supposed  proclamation  now  in  question, 
whether  genuine  or  false,  is  altogether  void,  so  far  as 
respects  such  declaration. 

"  I  further  make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent 
for  me,  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  to 
declare  the  slaves  of  any  State  or  States  free,  and  whether, 
at  any  time,  or  in  any  case,  it  shall  have  become  a  neces- 
sity indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Government 
to  exercise  such  supposed  power,  are  questions  which, 
under  my  responsibility,  I  reserve  to  myself,  and  which  I 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  233 

can  not  feel  justified  in  leaving  to  the  decision  of  com- 
manders in  the  field.  These  are  totally  different  questions 
from  those  of  police  regulations  in  armies  and  camps. 

"On  the  sixth  day  of  March  last,  by  a  special  message, 
I  recommended  to  Congress  the  adoption  of  a  joint  reso- 
lution, to  be  substantially  as  follows: — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate 
with  any  State  which  may  adopt  a  gradual  abolishment  of 
slavery,  giving  to  such  State  in  its  discretion  to  compen- 
sate for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private,  produced 
by  such  change  of  system." 

"The  resolution,  in  the  language  above  quoted,  was 
adopted  by  large  majorities  in  both  branches  of  Congress, 
and  now  stands  an  authentic,  definite,  and  solemn  proposal 
of  the  Nation  to  the  States  and  people  most  immediately 
interested  in  the  subject-matter.  To  the  people  of  these 
States  I  now  earnestly  appeal.  I  do  not  argue;  I  beseech 
you  to  make  the  arguments  for  yourselves.  You  can  not, 
if  you  would,  be  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times.  I  beg 
of  you  a  calm  and  enlarged  consideration  of  them,  ranging, 
if  it  may  be,  far  above  personal  and  partisan  politics. 
This  proposal  makes  common  cause  for  a  common  object, 
casting  no  reproaches  upon  any.  It  acts  not  the  Pharisee. 
The  change  it  contemplates  would  come  gently  as  the 
dews  of  heaven,  not  rending  or  wrecking  anything.  Will 
you  not  embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been  done 
by  one  effort  in  all  past  time,  as,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  it  is  now  your  high  privilege  to  do.  May  the  vast 
future  not  have  to  lament  that  you  have  neglected  it! 

"  In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  nineteenth  day 
of  May,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  the  eighty-sixth. 

"  Abraham  Lincoln." 


234  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  President  could  not  lose  this  opportunity  to 
make  one  more  appeal  in  behalf  of  his  scheme  of 
voluntary,  gradual,  compensated  emancipation.  His 
fond  hope  was  that  the  border  States  ;it  least  would 
accept  the  proposition.  "  The  change  it  contemplates 
would  come  gently  as  the  dews  of  heaven,  not  rend- 
ing or  wrecking  anything.  Will  you  not  embrace  it  ?" 
Vain  were  such  appeals.  But  they  exhibit  how 
little  Mr.  Lincoln  was  yet  prepared  to  enter  upon  the 
expedient  of  arbitrary  emancipntion ;  but  the  neces- 
sity of  which  he  already  began  to  see,  could  not  long 
be  resisted. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  made  an  earnest  at- 
tempt to  interest  the  colored  people  in  his  plan  of 
starting  a  colony  in  New  Granada  with  the  means 
Congress  had  put  at  his  disposjil  for  that  purpose. 
On  the  14th  of  August,  1862,  he  called  some  of  the 
more  intelligent  colored  men  to  hear  him  explain  the 
plan  and  his  reasons  for  it.  He  told  them  plainly 
that  the  two  races  should  Vive  apart;  that  they 
were  not  on  equal  terms  with  the  whites,  and  there 
was  no  probability  of  their  being  so ;  that  they  h;id 
no  great  reason  for  loving  the  white  nice  ;  that  they 
should  look  to  their  own  interests;  that  he  thought 
it  would  be  to  the  interests  of  both  laces  for  them  to 
seek  a  home  to  themselves.  This  he  wanted  to  help 
them  do,  and  would  see  to  it  that  they  should  not  be 
wronged  in  any  way.  In  this  interview  the  President 
treated  them  very  kindly,  and  told  them  that  in  his 
judgment  their  race  was  suffering  the  greatest  wrong 
which  had  ever  been  inflicted  on  any  people. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  235 

On  the  19th  of  August,  Horace  Greeley,  a  man  of 
no  very  great  depth  or  correctness  of  judgment 
on  pohtical  and  many  other  matters,  printed  in 
"The  Tribune"  a  long,  and  somewhat  rude  letter  to 
the  President,  in  which  Mr.  Greeley  berates  him  for 
acquiescing  in  the  unmilitary  and  inhuman  orders  of 
Halleck  and  others  as  to  slaves  entering  the  Union 
lines,  and  annulling  the  acts  of  others  looking  to  the 
freedom  of  the  slaves ;  accusing  him  of  being  influ- 
enced by  the  opinions  of  men  favorable  to  the  in- 
terests of  slavery,  and  who  were  otherwise  unsuitable 
guides  for  times  in  need  of  measures  so  extraordinary 
and  vigorous;  notifying  him  that  he  was  not  carry- 
ing out  the  laws  of  Congress,  which  was  as  little  as 
any  Republican  President  could  do  in  view  of  the 
hopes  and  promises  of  his  party ;  and  finally  notify- 
ing him,  in  the  name  of  twenty  millions  of  people,  as 
he  claimed,  that  the  way  to  crush  the  Rebellion  was 
to  crush  slavery.  This  harangue  the  President  saw 
fit  to  answer  in  one  of  his  most  valuable  and  re- 
markable letters  as  follows  : — 

"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  \ 
"  August  22,  1862.        / 
"  Hon,  Horace  Greeley  : — 

"Dear  Sir, — I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th 
instant,  addressed  to  myself  through  the  New  York 
'  Tribune.' 

"  If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of  fact 
wnich  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not  now  and  here 
controvert  them. 

"  If  there  be  any  inferences  which  I  may  believe  to  be 
falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue  against  them. 

"  If    there    be  perceptible    in    it    an    impatient,    dicta- 


236  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

tor'ial  tdne,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend  whose 
heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

"  As  to  the  policy  I  '  seem  to  be  pursuing,'  as  you  say, 
I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I  would 
save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest  way 
under  the  Constitution. 

"  The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  be  restored,  the 
nearer  the  Union  will  be — the  Union  as  it  was. 

"  If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  un- 
less they  could  at  the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not 
agree  with  them. 

"  If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  un- 
less they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not 
agree  with  them. 

"  3Iy  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  not 
either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 

"If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave, 
I  would  do  it;  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves, 
I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 

"  "What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do 
because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union ;  and  what  I 
forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help 
to  save  the  Union. 

"  I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am 
doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I 
believe  doing  more  will  help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to 
correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall  adopt 
new  views  so  fast   as  they   shall  appear  to  be  true  views. 

"  I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my 
official  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft- 
expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be 
free.  Yours,  A.  Lincoln." 

On  the  17th  of  July,  the  President  had  approved 
the  bill  providing  for  the  employment  of  negroes   in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  237 

the  service  of  the  army  and  navy,  and  the  everlast- 
ing freedom  of  the  slaves  of  rebel  masters  so  em- 
ployed. Only  a  few  days  after  this  event  the  fol- 
lowing order  was  sent  out : — 

"  War  Department,  Washington,  \ 
"  July  22,  1862.         / 

^'First.  Ordered  that  military  commanders  within  the 
States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas,  and  Arkansas,  in 
an  orderly  manner  seize  and  use  any  property,  real  or  per- 
sonal, which  may  be  necessary  or  convenient  for  their 
several  commands,  for  supplies,  or  for  other  military  pur- 
poses; and  that  while  property  may  be  destroyed  for 
proper  military  objects,  none  shall  be  destroyed  in  wanton- 
ness or  malice. 

"Second.  That  military  and  naval  commanders  shall 
employ  as  laborers,  within  and  from  said  States,  so  many 
persons  of  African  descent  as  can  be  advantageously  used 
for  military  or  naval  purposes,  giving  them  reasonable 
wages  for  their  labor. 

"  Third.  That,  as  to  both  property  and  persons  of  Af- 
rican descent,  accounts  shall  be  kept  sufficiently  accurate 
and  in  detail,  to  show  quantities  and  amounts,  and  from 
whom  both  property  and  such  persons  shall  have  come, 
on  a  basis  upon  which  compensation  can  be  made  in 
proper  cases ;  and  the  several  departments  of  this  Govern- 
ment shall  attend  to  and  perform  their  appropriate  parts 
towards  the  execution  of  these  orders. 

"  By  order  of  the  President. 

"  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  Wae." 

The  President  was  evidently  making  some  prog- 
ress in  the  work  of  emancipation;  more,  indeed, 
than  this  order  indicated,  or  than  those  most  ac- 
quainted with  his  affairs  knew.     He   was  now  plied 


238  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

on  the  question  from  every  source.  The  newspapers 
discussed  the  propriety  and  impropriety  of  a  decla- 
ration of  universal  emancipation ;  by  individuals,  and 
committees,  and  in  every  possible  way,  the  subject 
was  brought  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  attention.  Many  men 
for  whose  opinions  he  had  respect,  disagreed  greatly 
in  their  recommendations.  He  heard  them  all,  and, 
sometimes  as  grave  as  the  subject  was,  with  the  ap- 
pearance of  considerable  levity.  He  said  to  a  dele- 
gation of  religious  men  from  Illinois  that  no  person 
was  more  concerned  about  the  issue  of  such  a  step 
than  he  was,  and  if  there  was  any  expression  of  the 
will  of  Heaven,  any  Divine  revelation  about  it,  he 
should  be  the  recipient  of  it.  If  he  knew  the  will 
of  Providence  in  the  matter,  he  would  readily  carry 
it  out.  But  as  the  days  of  miracles  seemed  to  be 
passed,  he  would  have  to  study  tlie  plain  physical 
facts  of  the  case,  ascertain  what  Avas  possible,  and 
learn  what  appeared  to  be  wise  and  right.  In  these 
conversations  Mr.  Lincoln  always  managed  to  draw 
out  the  arguments  of  his  visitors  against  his  own 
doubts.  It  had  always  been  his  way,  when  he  could 
do  no  better,  to  array  against  himself  every  possible 
argument  which  would  seem  in  any  way  to  throw 
light  or  doubt  on  the  course  he  contemplated  or  Avas 
then  taking.  This  he  had  already  done  over  and 
over  again  in  reference  to  the  matter  of  emancipation. 
This  was  about  the  only  bit  of  philosophy  there  was 
in  Mr.  Lincoln's  composition.  At  all  events,  what- 
ever may  be  said  about  his  politics  and  anything  else, 
his  religion  was  utterly  void  of  philosophical  founda- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  239 

tion,  and  never  reached  the  dignity  of  being  worthy 
of  the  name  even,  until  he  went  to  Washington  and 
was  cut  loose  from  the  evil  influences  under  which 
he  lived  at  Springfield.  At  Washington  he  became 
the  subject  of  the  attentions  ;ind  the  prayers  of  the 
pious  and  the  good.  By  these  things  his  natural 
superstition  was  aroused  to  the  highest  degree  of 
friendliness  toward  them,  and  the  result  was  a  certain 
religious  development  in  his  own  life  by  which  even 
his  best  acquaintances  were  not  a  little  deceived. 

As  early  as  the  1st  of  July,  1862,  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  begun  to  think  seriously  of  immediately  issuing 
his  Emancipation  Proclamation.  And  it  has  been 
claimed  that  while  going  to  or  returning  from  his 
visit  to  General  McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing 
early  in  July,  he  prepared  the  first  draft  of  that  cele- 
brated paper.  At  any  rate  he  was  ahead  of  Mr. 
Greeley  in  his  demands  for  immediate  action  ;  and 
long  before  most  of  the  earnest  personal  appeals  were 
made  to  him  in  the  early  autumn,  he  had  decided 
upon  his  course.  The  following  is  the  first  or  pre- 
liminary 

PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION. 

"I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  here- 
after, as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the 
object  of  practically  restoring  the  Constitutional  relation 
between  the  United  States  and  each  of  the  States,  and  the 
people  thereof,  in  which  States  that  relation  is  or  may  be 
suspended  or  disturbed. 

"  That   it  is  my  purpose,  upon    the  next   meeting   of 


240  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Congress,  to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical 
measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  acceptance  or 
rejection  of  all  Slave  States  so-called,  the  people  whereof 
may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  and 
which  States  may  then  have  voluntarily  adopted,  or  there- 
after may  voluntarily  adopt,  immediate  or  gradual  abolish- 
ment of  slavery  within  their  respective  limits;  and  that 
the  effort  to  colonize  persons  of  African  descent,  with 
their  consent,  upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the 
previously  obtained  consent  of  the  government  existing 
there,  will  be  continued. 

"  That  on  the  1st  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  per- 
sons held  as  slaves  within  any  State,  or  designated  part 
of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward, 
and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Government  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority 
thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  such 
persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons, 
or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their 
actual  freedom. 

"  That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  1st  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  or  parts 
of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof  respectively 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States ;  and 
the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State 
shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  re- 
bellion against  the  United  States. 

"  That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress 
entitled  'An  Act  to  make  an  additional  Article  of  War,' 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  241 

approved  March  13,  1862,  and  which  Act  is  in  the  words 
and  figures  following : 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 
That  hereafter  the  following  shall  be  promulgated  as  an 
additional  article  of  war  for  the  government  of  the  array 
of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be  obeyed  and  observed 
as  such  : 

"Article. — All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military  or 
naval  service  of  the  United  States  are  prohibited  from 
employing  any  of  the  forces  under  their  respective  com- 
mands for  the  purpose  of  returning  fugitives  from  service 
or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from  any  person  to  whom 
such  service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due;  and  any  officer 
who  shall  be  found  guilty  by  a  court-martial  of  violating 
this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from  the  service. 

"  Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act  shall 
take  effect  from  and  after  its  passage. 

"Also,  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  en- 
titled 'An  Act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish  treason 
and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  property  of  rebels, 
and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  July  16,  1862,  and 
which  sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures  following : 

"  Sec.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves  of 
persons  who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  who  shall  in  any 
way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  per- 
sons and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army ;  and 
all  slaves  captured  from  such  persons,  or  deserted  by  them 
and  coming  under  the  control  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States ;  and  all  slaves  of  such  persons  found  on  (or) 
being  within  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces  and  after- 
ward occupied  by  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall  be 
deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their 
servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

"  Sec.  10.  And  be   it  further  enacted.   That    no  slave 

16— Q 


242  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

escaping  into  any  State,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, from  any  other  State,  shall  be  delivered  up,  or  in 
any  way  impeded  or  hindered  of  his  liberty,  except  for 
crime,  or  some  offense  against  the  laws,  unless  the  person 
claiming  said  fugitive  shall  first  make  oath  that  the  person 
to  whom  the  labor  or  service  of  such  fugitive  is  alleged 
to  be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  has  not  borne  arms 
against  the  United  States  in  the  present  Rebellion,  nor  in 
any  way  given  aid  and  comfort  thereto ;  and  no  person 
engaged  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  shall,  under  any  pretense  whatever,  assume  to 
decide  on  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person  to  the 
service  or  labor  of  any  other  person,  or  surrender  up  any 
such  person  to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being  dismissed 
from  the  service. 

"And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce,  within  their  respective 
spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sections  above  recited. 

"And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that 
all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have  remained 
loyal  thereto  throughout  the  Rebellion,  shall  (upon  the 
restoration  of  the  Constitutional  relation  between  the 
United  States  and  their  respective  States  and  people,  if 
that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended  or  disturbed)  be 
compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the  United  States, 
including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

"  In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"  Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second 
day  of  September,  in   the  year  of  our  Lord    one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the 
Independence    of    the  United   States  the  eighty- 
seventh.  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  By  the  President : 

"  Wm.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  243 

F.  B.  Carpenter,  the  artist  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
has  given  this  account  of  this  proclamation : — 

'"It  had  got  to  be,'  said  he,  'midsummer,  1862.  Things 
bad  goue  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had  reached 
the  end  of  our  rope  on  the  plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pur- 
suing; that  we  had  about  played  our  last  card,  and  must 
change  our  tactics,  or  lose  the  game!  I  now  determined  upon 
the  adoption  of  the  emancipation  policy ;  and,  without  consulta- 
tion with,  or  the  knowledge  of  the  Cabinet,  I  prepared  the 
original  draft  of  the  proclamation,  and,  after  much  anxious 
thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting  upon  the  subject.  This  was 
the  last  of  July,  or  the  first  part  of  the  month  of  August,  1862.' 
(The  exact  date  he  did  not  remember.)  'This  Cabinet  meeting 
took  place,  I  think,  upon  a  Saturday.  All  were  present,  ex- 
cepting Mr.  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  who  was  absent  at 
the  opening  of  the  discussion,  but  came  in  subsequently.  I 
said  to  the  Cabinet  that  I  had  resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had 
not  called  them  together  to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the 
subject-matter  of  a  proclamation  before  them ;  suggestions  as  to 
which  would  be  in  order,  after  they  had  heard  it  read.  Mr. 
Lovejoy,'  said  he,  '  was  in  error  when  he  informed  you  that 
it  excited  no  comment,  excepting  on  the  part  of  Secretary 
Seward.  Various  suggestions  were  offered.  Secretary  Chase 
"wished  the  language  stronger  in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the 
blacks.  Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy,  on 
the  ground  that  it  would  cost  the  Administration  the  fall  elec- 
tions. Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that  I  had  not  already 
fully  anticipated  and  settled  in  my  own  mind,  until  Secretary 
Seward  spoke.  He  said  in  substance:  "Mr.  President,  I  ap- 
prove of  the  proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expediency  of  its 
issue  at  this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind,  con- 
sequent upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great  that  I  fear  the 
effect  of  so  important  a  step.  It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last 
measure  of  an  exhausted  government,  a  cry  for  help ;  the 
Government  stretching  forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of 
Ethiopia  stretching  forth  her  hands  to  the  Government."  His 
idea,'  said  the  President,  '  was  that  it  would  be  considered  our 
last  shriek,  on  the  retreat.'     (This  was  his  precise  expression.) 


244  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

' "  Now,"  continued  Mr,  Seward,  "while  I  approve  the  measure, 
I  suggest,  sir,  that  you  postpone  its  issue,  until  you  can  give  it 
to  the  country  supported  by  military  success,  instead  of  issuing 
it,  as  would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest  disasters  of  the 
war!"'  Mr.  Lincoln  continued:  'The  wisdom  of  the  view  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with  very  great  force.  It  was 
an  aspect  of  the  case  that,  in  all  my  thought  upon  the  subject, 
I  had  entirely  overlooked.  The  result  was  that  I  put  the  duaft 
of  the  Proclamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a  picture, 
waiting  for  a  victory.  From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed 
a  line,  touching  it  up  here  and  there,  anxiously  watching  the 
progress  of  events.  Well,  the  next  news  we  had  was  of  Pope's 
disaster,  at  Bull  Run.  Things  looked  darker  than  ever.  Fi- 
nally, came  the  week  of  the  battle  of  Antietam.  I  determined 
to  wait  no  longer.  The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday, 
that  the  advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at  the 
Soldiers'  Home  (three  miles  out  of  Washington).  Here  I  fin- 
ished writing  the  second  draft  of  the  preliminary  Proclamation ; 
came  up  on  Saturday ;  called  the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it, 
and  it  was  published  the  following  Monday.' 

"  At  the  final  meeting  of  September  20th,  another  interest- 
ing incident  occurred  in  connection  with  Secretary  Seward. 
The  President  had  written  the  important  part  of  the  Proclama- 
tion in  these  words: — 

'"That,  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons 
held  as  slaves  within  any  State  or  designated  part  of  a  State, 
the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  free;  and  the 
Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mil- 
itar}^  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  the  freedom  of 
such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons, 
or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual 
freedom.' 

"  When  I  finished  reading  this  paragraph,'  resumed  Mr. 
Lincoln,  'Mr.  Seward  stopped  me,  and  said:  "I  think,  Mr. 
President,  that  you  should  insert  after  the  word  'recognize,'  in 
that  sentence,  the  words  'and  maintain.'"  I  replied  that  I  had 
already  fully  considered  the  import  of  that  expression  in  this 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  245 

connection,  but  I  had  not  introduced  it  because  it  was  not  my 
way  to  promise  what  I  was  not  entirely  sure  that  I  could  per- 
form, and  I  was  not  prepared  to  say  that  I  thought  we  were 
exactly  able  to  "maintain"  this.' 

"'But,'  said  he,  'Seward  insisted  that  we  ought  to  take 
this  ground;  and  the  words  finally  went  in!' 

"'It  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  fact,'  he  subsequently  re- 
marked, 'that  there  were  just  one  hundred  days  between  the 
dates  of  the  two  proclamations  issued  upon  the  22d  of  Septem- 
ber and  the  1st  of  January.  I  had  not  made  the  calculation 
at  the  time.' 

"Having  concluded  this  interesting  statement,  the  President 
then  proceeded  to  show  me  the  various  positions  occupied  by 
himself  and  the  different  members  of  the  Cabinet,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  first  meeting.  '  As  nearly  as  I  remember,'  said  he, 
'  I  sat  near  the  head  of  the  table ;  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
and  the  Secretary  of  War  were  here,  at  my  right  hand ;  the 
others  were  grouped  at  the  left,'     . 

"In  February  last,  a  few  days  after  the  passage  of  the 
'  Constitutional  Amendment,'  I  was  in  Washington,  and  was 
received  by  Mr.  Lincoln  with  the  kindness  and  familiarity 
which  had  characterized  our  previous  intercourse.  I  said  to 
him  one  day  that  I  was  very  proud  to  have  been  the  artist  to 
have  first  conceived  of  the  design  of  painting  a  picture  com- 
memorative of  the  Act  of  Emancipation  ;  that  subsequent  oc- 
currences had  only  confirmed  my  own  first  judgment  of  that 
act  as  the  most  sublime  moral  event  in  our  history.  'Yes, 
said  he,  and  never  do  I  remember  to  have  noticed  in  him  more 
earnestness  of  expression  or  manner,  '  as  affairs  have  turned,  it  is 
tlie  central  act  of  my  Administration  and  the  great  event  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.^ 

"I  remember  to  have  asked  him,  on  one  occasion,  if  there 
was  not  some  opposition  manifested  on  the  part  of  several  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet  to  the  emancipation  policy.  He  said,  in 
reply:  'Nothing  more  than  I  have  stated  to  you.  Mr.  Blair 
thought  we  should  lose  the  fall  elections,  and  opposed  it  on 
that  ground  only.'  Said  I:  'I  have  understood  that  Secretary 
Smith  was  not  in  favor  of  your  action.  Mr.  Blair  told  me 
that,  when  the  meeting  closed,  he  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 


246  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

rior  went  away  together,  and  that  the  latter  told  him,  if  the 
President  carried  out  that  policy,  he  might  count  on  losing  In- 
diana, sure!'  '  He  never  said  anything  of  the  kind  to  me,'  re- 
turned the  President.  '  And  how,'  said  I,  '  does  Mr.  Blair  feel 
about  it  now?'  'O,'  was  the  prompt  reply,  'he  proved  right 
in  regard  to  the  fall  elections,  but  he  is  satisfied  that  we  have 
since  gained  more  than  we  lost.'  'I  have  been  told,'  said  I, 
*  that  Judge  Bates  doubted  the  Constitutionality  of  the  Procla- 
mation.' '  He  never  expressed  such  an  opinion  in  my  hearing,* 
replied  Mr.  Lincoln.  'No  member  of  the  Cabinet  ever  dis- 
sented from  the  policy,  in  any  conversation  with  me.'" 

At  last  the  final  act,  known  in  history  as  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  appeared  as  follows,  ac- 
cording to  promise,  on  the  first  day  of  the  new 
year : — 

EMANCn^ATION  PROCLAMATION. 

"  Whereas,  On  the  twenty-second  day  of  September, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  containing,  among  other  things,  the  fol- 
lowing, to  wit : 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all 
persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  States  or  designated 
part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  re- 
bellion against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thencefor- 
ward, and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive  Government  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval 
authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom 
of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such 
persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for 
their  actual  freedom  : 

"  That  the  Executive  wall,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts 
of  States,  if  any,  in  wdiich  the  people  thereof  respectively 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  247 

shall  then  be  id  rebellion  against  the  United  States ;  and 
the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  he  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  by  members  chosen  thereto  at  elections 
wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters  of  such  State 
shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence 
that  such  State,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States : 

"Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United 
States  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against  the 
authority  and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a 
fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebell- 
ion, do,  on  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  in 
accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  proclaimed 
for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days,  from  the  day  first 
above  mentioned,  order  and  designate  as  the  States  and 
parts  of  States  wherein  the  people  thereof  respectively  are 
this  day  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  the  follow- 
ing, to  wit : 

"  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of 
St.  Bernard,  Plaquemines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles, 
St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption,  Terre  Bonne,  La- 
fourche, Ste.  Marie,  St.  Martin,  and  Orleans,  including  the 
city  of  New  Orleans),  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida, 
Georgia,  South  Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia 
(except  the  forty-eight  counties  designated  as  West  Vir- 
ginia ;  and  also  the  counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomack, 
Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Anne,  and 
Norfolk,  including  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth), 
and  which  excepted  parts  are  for  the  present  left  precisely 
as  if  this  Proclamation  were  not  issued. 

"And  by   virtue  of  the   power   and    for   the    purpose 


248  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

aforesaid,  I  do  order  and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as 
slaves  within  said  designated  States  and  parts  of  States 
are,  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free ;  and  that  the  Execu- 
tive Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili- 
tary and  naval  authorities  thereof,'  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  said  persons. 

"  And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to 
be  free,  to  abstain  from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary 
self-defense ;  and  I  recommend  to  them  that,  in  all  cases 
when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable  wages. 

'-  And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such 
persons,  of  suitable  condition,  will  be  received  into  the 
armed  service  of  the  United  States  to  garrison  forts,  posi- 
tions, stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of  all 
sorts  in  said  service. 

"  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution  upon  military 
necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind, 
and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name, 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"  Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of 
January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  of  America  the 
eighty-seventh. 

"  By  the  President :  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  Wm.  H.  Sewakd,  Secretary  of  State." 

One  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  most  faithful  friends  thus 
describes  the  signing  of  the  proclamation  : — 

"  The  roll  containing  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
was  taken  to  Mr.  Lincoln  at  noon  on  the  first  day  of  Jan- 
uary, 1863,  by  Secretary  Seward  and  his  son,  Frederick. 
As  it  lay  unrolled  before  him,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  a  pen, 
dipped  it  in  ink,  moved  his    hand    to  the    place  for    the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  249 

signature,  held  it  a  moment,  and  then  removed  his  hand 
and  dropped  the  pen.  After  a  little  hesitation  he  again 
took  up  the  pen  and  went  through  the  same  movement  as 
before,  Mr.  Lincoln  then  turned  to  Mr.  Seward  and  said  : 
'  I  have  been  shaking  hands  since  nine  o'clock  this  morn- 
ing, and  my  right  arm  is  almost  paralyzed.  If  my  name 
ever  goes  into  history,  it  will  be  for  this  act,  and  my 
whole  soul  is  in  it.  If  my  hand  trembles  when  I  sign  the 
Proclamation,  all  who  examine  the  document  hereafter, 
will  say,  "He  hesitated."'  He  then  turned  to  the  table, 
took  up  the  pen  again,  and  slowly,  firmly  wrote  that 
'  Abraham  Lincoln '  with  which  the  whole  world  is  now 
familiar.  He  looked  up,  smiled,  and  said:  ^That 
will  do.' " 

The  original  draft  of  this  paper  all  in  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's own  handwriting  except,  perhaps,  a  few  words 
interlined  by  Mr.  Seward,  was  bought  for  the  use  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  at  its  fair  in  Chicago  in  the 
fall  of  1863.  Afterwards  the  President  was  re- 
quested to  sign  duplicates  which  he  did ;  and  these 
were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Fairs  in 
1864.  Some  of  them  were  placed  in  various  public 
institutions,  and  one,  it  is  said,  occupies  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  Library  of  the  British  Museum 
in  London. 

Mr.  Chase  presented  to  the  President  a  paper 
containing  what  he  viewed  as  the  proper  substance 
of  the  Proclamation.  The  last  sentence  of  this  Mr. 
Lincoln  adopted,  with  a  slight  change,  being  the  clos- 
ing paragraph  of  the  Proclamation — "And  upon  this 
act,  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted  by 
the    Constitution   upon   military  necessity,  I   invoke 


250  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind  and  the  gra- 
cious favor  of  Almighty  God."  Otherwise  there  was 
little  modification  of  the  President's  original  draft, 
even  this  scarcely  deserving  notice.  Long  before  it 
was  known  to  his  Cabinet  and  friends,  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  written  the  introductory  proclamation  of  Sep- 
tember 22,  1862,  and  to  him  alone  belongs  the  credit 
of  the  entire  writing,  and  the  great  act.  That  he 
had  examined  the  whole  subject  in  all  its  bearings, 
in  its  effects  at  home  and  abroad,  upon  the  friends 
of  the  Union  and  the  rebels  and  their  aiders  and 
abettors  in  the  North,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

In  a  letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges,  of  Frankfort,  Ken- 
tucky, dated  April  4,  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  gives  the 
best  possible  exposition  of  his  motives  for  this  act, 
and  the  principles  which  governed  him  throughout. 
This  is  one  of  his  most  memorable  letters,  and  is  as 
follows : — 

"My  Dear  Sir, — You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the 
substance  of  what  I  verbally  said  the  other  day  in  your 
presence  to  Governor  Bramlette  and  Senator  Dixon.  It 
was  as  follows: — 

"  I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not  wrong, 
nothing  is  wrong.  I  can  not  remember  when  I  did  not 
so  think  and  feel,  and  yet  I  have  never  understood  that 
the  Presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  unrestricted  right  to 
act  officially  upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.  It  was  in 
the  oath  I  took  that  I  would,  to  the  best  of  my  ability, 
preserve,  protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  I  could  not  take  the  office  without  taking 
the  oath.  Nor  was  it  my  view  that  I  might  take  an  oath 
to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath   in  using  the  power.     I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  251 

understood,  too,  that  in  ordinary  civil  administration  this 
oath  even  forbade  me  to  practically  indulge  my  primary 
abstract  judgment  on  the  moral  question  of  slavery.  I 
had  publicly  declared  this  many  times,  and  in  many  ways. 
And  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no  official  act 
in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment  and  feeling  on 
slavery. 

"  I  did  understand,  however,  that  the  very  oath  to 
preserve  the  Constitution  to  the  best  of  my  ability  im- 
posed upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving,  by  every  indis- 
pensable means,  that  Government,  that  Nation  of  which 
that  Constitution  was  the  organic  law.  Was  it  possible  to 
lose  the  Nation  and  yet  preserve  the  Constitution  ?  By 
general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be  protected;  yet  often  a 
limb  must  be  amputated  to  save  a  life ;  but  a  life  is  never 
wisely  given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures,  other- 
wise unconstitutional,  might  become  lawful  by  becoming 
indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution 
through  the  preservation  of  the  Nation.  Right  or  wrong, 
I  assumed  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not 
feel  that,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to 
preserve  the  Constitution,  if  to  preserve  slavery,  or  any 
minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the  wreck  of  Government, 
country,  and  Constitution  altogether.  When,  early  in  the 
war,  General  Fremont  attempted  military  emanci]);ition,  I 
forbade  it,  because  I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensa- 
ble necessity.  When,  a  little  later.  General  Cameron, 
then  Secretary  of  War,  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks, 
I  objected,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an  indispensable 
necessity.  When,  still  later,  General  Hunter  attempted 
military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  because  I  did 
not  yet  think  the  indispensable  necessity  had  come.  When, 
in  March,  and  May,  and  July,  1862,  I  made  earnest  and 
successive  appeals  to  the  border  States  to  favor  compen- 
sated emancipation,  I  believed  the  indispensable  necessity 
for  military  emancipation   and   arming   the   blacks  would 


252  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

come,  unless  averted  by  that  measure.  They  declined  the 
proposition,  and  I  was,  in  my  best  judgment,  driven  to 
the  alternative  of  either  surrendering  the  Union,  and  with 
it  the  Constitution,  or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon  the  col- 
ored element.     I  chose  the  latter! 

"In  choosing  it,  I  hoped  for  greater  gain  than  loss, 
but  of  this  I  was  not  entirely  confident.  More  than  a 
year's  trial  now  shows  no  loss  by  it,  in  our  foreign  rela- 
tions; none  in  our  home  popular  sentiment;  none  in  our 
white  military  force — no  loss  by  it  anyhow  or  anywhere. 
On  the  contrary,  it  shows  a  gain  of  quite  a  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers.  These  are 
palpable  facts,  about  which,  as  facts,  there  can  be  no  cavil- 
ing. We  have  the  men,  and  we  could  not  have  had  them 
without  the  measure. 

"And  now,  let  any  Union  man  who  complains  of  the 
measure,  test  himself  by  writing  down  in  one  line  that  he 
is  for  subduing  the  Rebellion  by  force  of  arms,  and  in  the 
next  that  he  is  for  takirg  this  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and  placing  them 
where  they  would  be,  but  for  the  measure  he  condemns. 
If  he  can  not  face  his  cause  so  stated,  it  is  only  because 
he  can  not  face  the  truth. 

"  I  add  a  word,  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conversa- 
tion. In  telling  this  tale,  I  attempt  no  compliment  to 
my  own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to  have  controlled  events, 
but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled  me.  Now, 
at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the  Nation's  condition 
is  not  what  either  party  or  any  man  devised  or  expected. 
God  ^lone  can  claim  it.  Where  it  is  tending,  seems  plain. 
If  God  now  wills  the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills 
also  that  we  of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South, 
shall  pay  fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impartial 
history  will  find  therein  new  cause  to  attest  and  revere 
the  justice  and  goodness  of  God; 

"Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  253 

So  it  happened  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  at  the  out- 
set had  said  in  reference  to  interfering  with  shivery 
in  the  States,  "  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right,  and 
I  have  no  intention  to  do  so,"  had  gradually  come 
to  believe  his  interference  with  slavery  necessary  to 
preserve  the  Union,  and  had  come  to  avow  openly 
and  defend  the  steps  by  which  he  had  reached  this 
position,  and  all  the  consequences  of  his  acts. 

The  record  is  far  above  suspicion.  If  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  departed  from  his  original  intentions,  he 
had  done  so  honestly.  It  was  no  fault  of  his.  He 
had  vainly  tried  to  control  events.  They  had  led 
him,  and  in  the  religious  fervor  which  had,  to  some 
extent,  displaced  his  former  tendencies,  he  now  held 
that  Deity  was  at  the  back  of  it  all,  and  must  have 
the  honor. 

The  country  was,  for  a  time,  greatly  •divided  as 
to  the  good  and  e^dl  which  might  spring  from  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  The  Democrats  said  it 
would  faU  harmlessly  to  the  dust.  But  it  greatly 
irritated  them  at  any  rate,  especially  those  who  be- 
lieved their  political  ascendency  could  only  be  re- 
covered and  maintained  somehow  by  the  South. 
Many  good  and  wise  Union  men  were  uncertain  and 
uneasy  about  it.  Darkness  was  before  them.  This 
was  a  bold,  fearful  leap  the  President  had  taken. 

The  rebels  pretended  to  hold  the  Proclamation  in 
contempt;  still  it  alarmed  them,  and  called  out  the 
spirit  of  the  direst  vengeance.  The  effect  of  the 
Proclamation  in  Europe  was  favorable  to  the  cause 
of  the  Government,  and  long  before  the  Presidential 


254  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

election  in  the  fall  of  1864,  the  loyal  North  had  come  to 
view  it  with  the  President's  eyes,  to  a  great  extent. 
Its  virtue  had  already  been  well  attested.  The  bit- 
ter opposition  long  apparent  in  the  army  to  the  em- 
ployment of  colored  soldiers  had  passed  away,  and 
the  strong  selfish  feeling  of  having  the  negro  bear 
any  possible  amount  of  the  brunt  and  hardship  of  the 
war,  which  never  would  have  been  but  for  him,  took 
the  place,  even  there,  of  the  former  drivel  about  ne- 
gro "equality"  with  the  white  man  by  placing  a- 
musket  in  his  hand.  And  although  various  motives, 
not  always  creditable,  led  the  loyal  people  of  the 
North  to  give  a  hearty  support  finally  to  the  emanci- 
pation policy  and  all  that  followed  from  it,  in  the 
main  they  were  actuated  by  the  one  grand,  noble 
sentiment  of  elevating  a  downtrodden  race,  of  better- 
ing the  condition  of  a  large  part  of  their  own,  of  sav- 
ing the  Government  which  they  believed  to  be  the 
best  ever  achieved  by  enlightened  man,  and  of  re- 
moving from  it,  while  they  had  an  opportunity  and  a 
ground  for  so  doing,  the  only  apparent  or  probable  or 
possible  instrument  of  its  downfall.  So  the  deed  was 
accomplished,  and  long  ago  from  all  civilized  nations 
but  one  voice  has  arisen  concerning  it.  Even  in 
America  to-day  it  can  hardly  be  maintained  that  there 
is  a  divided  sentiment  about  the  emancipation  of  the 
four  millions  of  slaves.  It  was  the  great  achievement 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Administration.  By  it,  but  certainly 
not  wholly  so,  does  he  take  his  place  in  history,  as  he 
believed  he  should.  After  the  establishment  of  the 
Republic  it  was  the  greatest  event  which  ever  took 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  255 

place  on  the  continent,  if  it  was  not  the  first  in  its 
grandeur  and  importance;  and  among  the  grand 
achievements  of  human  justice,  progress,  and  govern- 
ment, it  must  ever  be  conspicuous. 


256  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— CONGRESS  IN  THE  WINTER 
OF  1862— SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE— WEST  VIR- 
GINIA—AN  ERROR. 

ON  the  first  day  of  December  Congress  assembled 
(last  session  of  the  "  Thirty-seventh  Con- 
gress"), and  on  the  same  day  the  President  sent  to 
that  body  his 

SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: — 
Since  your  last  annual  assembling,  another  year  of  health 
and  bountiful  harvests  has  passed.  And  while  it  has  not 
pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless  us  with  a  return  of  peace,  we 
can  but  press  on,  guided  by  the  best  light  he  gives  us,  trusting 
that  in  his  own  good  time  and  wise  way,  all  will  yet  be  well. 

The  correspondence  touching  foreign  affairs  which  has  taken 
place  during  the  last  year  is  herewith  submitted,  in  virtual 
compliance  with  a  request  to  that  effect  made  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  near  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress. 

If  the  condition  of  our  relations  with  other  nations  is  less 
gratifying  than  it  has  usually  been  at  former  periods,  it  is  cer- 
tainly more  satisfactory  than  a  Nation  so  unhappily  distracted 
as  we  are,  might  reasonably  have  apprehended.  In  the  month 
of  June  last  there  were  some  grounds  to  expect  that  the  mari- 
time powers  which,  at  the  beginning  of  our  domestic  difficulties, 
so  unwisely  and  unnecessarily,  as  we  think,  recognized  the 
insurgents  as  a  belligerent,  would  soon  recede  from  that  posi- 
tion, which  has  proved  only  less  injurious  to  themselves  than  to 
our  own  country.  But  the  temporary  reverses  which  afterwards 
befell  the  national  arms,  and  which  were  exaggerated  by  our 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  257 

own  disloyal  citizens  abroad,  have  hitherto  delayed  that  act  of 
simple  justice. 

The  Civil  War,  which  has  so  radically  changed,  for  the  mo- 
ment, the  occupations  and  habits  of  the  American  people,  has 
necessarily  disturbed  the  social  condition,  and  affected  very 
deeply  the  prosperity  of  the  nations  with  which  we  have  carried 
on  a  commerce  that  has  been  steadily  increasing  throughout  a 
period  of  half  a  century.  It  has,  at  the  same  time,  excited 
political  ambitions  and  apprehensions  which  have  pi-odiiced  a 
profound  agitation  throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  this 
unusual  agitation  we  have  forborne  from  taking  part  in  any 
controversy  between  foreign  states,  and  between  parties  or 
factions  in  such  states.  We  have  attempted  no  propagandism, 
and  acknowledged  no  revolution.  But  we  have  left  to  every 
nation  the  exclusive  conduct  and  management  of  its  own  affairs. 
Our  struggle  has  been,  of  course,  contemplated  by  foreign 
nations  with  reference  less  to  its  own  merits  than  to  its  sup- 
posed and  often  exaggerated  effects  and  consequences  resulting 
to  those  nations  themselves.  Nevertheless,  complaint  on  the 
part  of  this  Government,  even  if  it  were  just,  would  certainly 
be  unwise. 

The  treaty  with  Great  Britain  for  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade  has  been  put  into  operation  with  a  good  prospect  of 
complete  success.  It  is  an  occasion  of  special  pleasure  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  execution  of  it,  on  the  part  of  her  majesty's 
government,  has  been  marked  with  a  jealous  respect  for  the 
authority  of  the  United  States,  and  the  rights  of  their  moral 
and  loyal  citizens. 

The  convention  with  Hanover  for  the  abolition  of  the  State 
dues  has  been  carried  into  full  effect,  under  the  Act  of  Congress 
for  that  purpose. 

A  blockade  of  three  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast  could  not 
be  established,  and  vigorously  enforced,  in  a  season  of  great 
commercial  activity  like  the  present,  without  committing  occa- 
sional mistakes  and  inflicting  unintentional  injuries  upon  foreign 
nations  and  their  subjects. 

A  civil  war  occurring  in  a  country  where  foreigners  reside 
and  carry  on  trade  under  treaty  stipulations,  is  necessarily 
fruitful  of  complaints  of  the  violation  of  neutral  rights.      All 

17— Q 


258  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

such  collisions  tend  to  excite  raisappreheusious,  and  possibly  to 
produce  mutual  reclamations  between  nations  which  have  a 
common  interest  in  preserving  peace  and  friendship.  In  clear 
cases  of  these  kinds  I  have,  so  far  as  possible,  heard  and  re- 
dressed complaints  which  have  been  presented  by  friendly 
powers.  There  is  still,  however,  a  large  and  an  augmenting 
number  of  doubtful  cases  upon  which  the  Government  is  unable 
to  agree  with  the  governments  whose  protection  is  demanded  by 
the  claimants.  There  are,  moreover,  many  cases  in  which  the 
United  States,  or  their  citizens,  suffer  wrongs  from  the  naval  or 
military  authorities  of  foreign  nations,  which  the  governments 
of  those  states  are  not  at  once  prepared  to  redress.  I  have 
proposed  to  some  of  the  foreign  states,  thus  interested,  mutual 
conventions  to  examine  and  adjust  such  complaints.  This 
pi'oposiiion  has  been  made  especially  to  Great  Britain,  to 
France,  to  Spain,  and  to  Prussia.  In  each  case  it  has  been 
kindly  received,  but  has  not  yet  been  formally  adopted. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  to  recommend  an  appropriation  in  behalf 
of  the  owners  of  the  Norwegian  bark.  Admiral  P.  Tordemkiold, 
which  vessel  was,  in  May,  1861,  prevented  by  the  commander 
of  the  blockading  force  off  Charleston  from  'eaving  that  port 
with  cargo,  notwithstanding  a  similar  privilege  had  shortly  be- 
fore been  granted  to  an  English  vessel.  I  have  directed  the 
Secretary  of  State  to  cause  the  papers  in  the  case  to  be  com- 
municated to  the  proper  committees. 

Applications  have  been  made  to  me  by  many  free  Americans 
of  African  descent  to  favor  their  emigration,  with  a  view  to  such 
colonization  as  was  contemplated  in  recent  acts  of  Congress. 
Other  parties  at  home  and  abroad,  some  from  interested  rao- 
.;ives,  others  upon  patriotic  considerations,  and  still  others  in- 
iluenced  by  philanthropic  sentiments,  have  suggested  similar 
measures  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  several  of  the  Spanish- 
American  republics  have  protested  against  the  sending  of  such 
colonies  to  their  respective  territories.  Under  these  circum- 
stances I  have  declined  to  move  any  such  colony  to  any  state 
without  first  obtaiuiug  the  consent  of  its  government,  Avith  an 
agreement  on  its  part  to  receive  and  protect  such  emigrants  in 
all  the  rights  of  freemen;  and  I  have  at  the  same  time  offered 
to  the  several  states  situated  within  the  tropics,  or  having   col- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  259 

onies  there,  to  negotiate  with  them,  subject  to  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  to  favor  the  voluntary  emigration  of  per- 
sons of  that  class  to  their  respective  territories,  upon  conditions 
which  shall  be  equal,  just,  and  humane.  Liberia  and  Hayti 
are,  as  yet,  the  only  countries  to  which  colonists  of  African 
descent  from  here,  could  go  with  certainty  of  being  received 
and  adopted  as  citizens  ;  and  I  regret  to  say  such  persons,  con- 
templating colonization,  do  not  seem  so  willing  to  migrate  to 
those  countries  as  to  some  others,  nor  so  willing  as  I  think  their 
interest  demands.  I  believe,  however,  opinion  among  them  in 
this  respect,  is  improving;  and  that,  erelong,  there  will  be  an 
augmented,  and  considerable  migration  to  both  these  countries, 
from  the  United  States. 

The  new  commercial  treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey  has  been  carried  into  execution. 

A  commercial  and  consular  treaty  has  been  negotiated,  sub- 
ject to  the  Senate's  consent,  with  Liberia;  and  a  similar  nego- 
tiation is  now  pending  with  the  Republic  of  Hayti.  A  consider- 
able improvement  of  the  national  commerce  is  expected  to  re- 
sult from  these  measures. 

Our  relations  with  Great  Britain,  France,  Spain,  Portugal, 
Russia,  Prussia,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Austria,  the  Netherlands, 
Italy,  Rome,  and  the  other  European  States,  remain  undis- 
turbed. Very  favorable  relations  also  continue  to  be  main- 
tained with  Turkey,  Morocco,  China,  and  Japan. 

During  the  last  year  there  has  not  only  been  no  change  of 
our  previous  relations  with  the  independent  States  of  our  own 
continent,  but  more  friendly  sentiments  than  have  heretofore 
existed,  are  believed  to  be  entertained  by  these  neighbors, 
whose  safety  and  progress  are  so  intimately  connected  with  our 
own.  This  statement  especially  applies  to  Mexico,  Nicaragua, 
Costa  Rica,  Honduras,  Peru,  and  Chili. 

The  commission  under  the  convention  with  the  Republic  of 
New  Granada  closed  its  session  without  having  audited  and 
passed  upon  all  the  claims  which  were  submitted  to  it.  A 
proposition  is  pending  to  revive  the  convention,  that  it  may  be 
able  to  do  more  complete  justice.  The  Joint  Commission  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  Republic  of  Costa  Rica  has 
completed  its  labors  and  submitted  its  report. 


260  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

I  have  favored  the  project  for  connecting  the  United  States 
with  Europe  by  an  Atlantic  telegraph,  and  a  similar  project  to 
extend  the  telegraph  from  San  Francisco,  to  connect  by  a 
Pacific  telegraph  with  the  line  which  is  being  extended  across 
the  Russian  empire. 

The  Territories  of  the  United  States,  with  unimportant  ex- 
ceptions, have  remained  undisturbed  by  the  Civil  War  ;  and  they - 
are  exhibiting  such  evidence  of  prosperity  as  justifies  an  ex- 
pectation that  some  of  them  will  soon  be  in  a  condition  to  be 
organized  as  States,  and  be  Constitutionally  admitted  into  the 
Federal  Union. 

The  immense  mineral  resources  of  some  of  those  Territories 
ought  to  be  developed  as  rapidly  as  possible.  Every  step  in 
that  direction  would  have  a  tendency  to  improve  the  revenues 
of  the  Government,  and  diminish  the  burdens  of  the  people. 
It  is  worthy  of  your  serious  consideration  whether  some  extraor- 
dinary measures  to  promote  that  end  can  not  be  adopted. 
The  means  which  suggests  itself  as  most  likely  to  be  effective,  is 
a  scientific  exploration  of  the  mineral  regions  in  those  Territories, 
with  a  view  to  the  publication  of  its  results  at  home  and  in 
foreign  countries ;   results  which  can  not  fail  to  be  auspicious. 

The  condition  of  the  finances  will  claim  your  most  diligent 
consideration.  The  vast  expenditures  incident  to  the  military 
and  naval  operations  required  for  the  suppression  of  the  Re- 
bellion, have  hitherto  been  met  with  a  promptitude  and  cer- 
tainty unusual  in  similar  circumstances  ;  and  the  public  credit 
has  been  fully  maintained.  The  continuance  of  the  war,  how- 
ever, and  the  increased  disbursements  made  necessary  by  the 
augmented  forces  now  in  the  field,  demand  your  best  reflections 
as  to  the  best  modes  of  providing  the  necessary  revenue,  with- 
out injury  to  business,  and  with  the  least  possible  burdens 
upon  labor. 

The  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks,  soon  after 
the  commencement  of  your  last  session,  made  large  issues  of 
United  States  notes  unavoidable.  In  no  other  way  could  the 
payment  of  the  troops,  and  the  satisfaction  of  other  just  de- 
mands, be  so  economically  or  so  well  provided  for.  The  judi- 
cious legislation  of  Congress,  securing  the  receivability  of  these 
notes  for  loans   and  internal  duties,  and  making  them  a  legal 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  261 

tender  for  other  debts,  has  made  them  a  universal  currency; 
and  has  satisfied,  partially,  at  least,  and  for  the  time,  the  long- 
felt  want  of  a  uniform  circulating  medium,  saving  thereby 
to   the   people  immense   sums  in  discounts  and  exchanges. 

A  return  to  specie  payments,  however,  at  the  earliest  period 
compatible  with  due  regard  to  all  interests  concerned,  should 
•ever  be  kept  in  view.  Fluctuations  in  the  value  of  currency 
are  always  injurious,  and  to  reduce  these  fluctuations  to  the 
lowest  possible  point  will  always  be  a  leading  purpose  in  wise 
legislation.  Convertibility,  prompt  and  certain  convertibility 
into  coin,  is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  and  surest 
safeguard  against  them  ;  and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether 
a  circulation  of  United  States  notes,  payable  in  cuiu,  and 
sufficiently  large  for  the  wants  of  the  people,  can  be  perma- 
nently, usefully,  and  safely  maintained. 

Is  there,  then,  any  other  mode  in  which  the  necessary  pro- 
vision for  the  public  wants  can  be  made,  and  the  great  ad- 
vantages of  a  safe  and  uniform  currency  secured? 

I  know  of  none  which  promises  so  certain  results,  and  is  at 
the  same  time  so  unobjectionable,  as  the  organization  of  bank- 
ing associations  under  a  general  act  of  Congress,  well  guarded 
in  its  provisions.  To  such  associations  the  Government  might 
furnish  circulating  notes,  on  the  security  of  United  States 
bonds  deposited  in  the  treasury.  These  notes,  prepared  under 
the  supervision  of  proper  officers,  being  uniform  in  appearance 
and  security,  and  convertible  always  into  coin,  would  at  once 
protect  labor  against  the  evils  of  a  vicious  currency,  and  facil- 
itate commerce  by  cheap  and  safe  exchanges. 

A  moderate  reservation  from  the  interest  on  the  bonds 
would  compensate  the  United  States  for  the  preparation  and 
distribution  of  the  notes  and  a  general  supervision  of  the  sys- 
tem, and  would  lighten  the  burden  of  that  part  of  the  public 
debt  employed  as  securities.  The  public  credit,  moreover, 
would  be  greatly  improved,  and  the  negotiation  of  new  loans 
greatly  facilitated,  by  the  steady  market  demand  for  Government 
bonds  which  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  system  would  create. 

It  is  an  additional  recommendation  of  the  measure,  of  con- 
siderable weight,  in  my  judgment,  that  it  would  reconcile,  as 
far  as  possible,  all  existing  interests,  by  the  opportunity  offered 


262  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  institutions  to  reorganize  under  the  act,  substituting  only  the 
secured  uniform  national  circulation  for  the  local  and  various 
circulation,  secured  and  unsecured,  now  issued  by  them. 

The  receipts  into  the  treasury  from  all  sources,  including 
loans,  and  balance  from  the  precediug  year,  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  on  the  30th  June,  1862,  were  $583,885,247.06,  of 
which  sum  649,056,397.62  were  derived  from  customs;  $1,795,- 
331.73  from  the  direct  tax;  from  public  lands,  $152,203.77; 
from  miscellaneous  sources,  $931,787.64;  from  loans  in  all 
forms,  $529,692,460.50.  The  remainder,  $2,257,065.80,  was 
the  balance  from  last  year. 

The  disbursements  during  the  same  period  were  for  Congres- 
sional, Executive,  and  judicial  purposes,  $5,939,009.29;  for  for- 
eign intercourse,  $1,339,710.35;  for  miscellaneous  expenses, 
including  the  mints,  loans,  post-office  deficiencies,  collection  of 
revenue,  and  other  like  charges,  $14,129,771.50  ;  for  expenses 
under  the  Interior  Department,  $3,102,985.52  ;  under  the  War 
Department,  $394,368,407.36;  under  the  Navy  Department, 
$42,674,569.69;  for  interest  on  public  debt,  $13,190,324.45 ; 
and  for  payment  of  public  debt,  including  reimbursement  of 
temporary  loan,  and  redemptions,  $96,096,922.09;  making  an 
aggregate  of  $570,841,700.25,  and  leaving  a  balance  in  the 
treasury  on  the  first  day  of  July,  1862,  of  $13,043,546.81. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  sum  of  $96,096,922.09,  ex- 
pended for  reimbursements  and  redem2:)tion  of  public  debt,  be- 
ing included  also  in  the  loans  made,  may  be  properly  deducted, 
both  from  receipts  and  expenditures,  leaving  the  actual  re- 
ceipts for  the  year,  $487,788,324.97;  and  the  expenditures, 
$474,744,778.16. 

Other  information  on  the  subject  of  the  finances  will  be 
found  in  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  whose 
statements  and  views  I  invite  your  most  candid  and  considerate 
attention. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy  are 
herewith  transmitted.  These  reports,  though  lengthy,  are 
scarcely  more  than  brief  abstracts  of  the  very  numerous  and  ex- 
tensive transactions  and  operations  conducted  through  those 
Departments.  Nor  could  I  give  a  summary  of  them  here,  upon 
any   principle,  which  would   admit  of  its    being  much  shorter 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  263 

than  the  reports  themselves.  I  therefore  content  myself  with 
laying  the  reports  before  you,  and  asking  your  attention  to  them. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  report  a  decided  improvement  in 
the  financial  condition  of  the  Post-office  Department,  as  com- 
pared with  several  precediug  years.  The  receipts  for  the  fiscal 
year  1861  amounted  to  $8,349,296.40,  which  embraced  the 
revenue  from  all  the  States  of  the  Union  for  three  quarters  of 
that  year.  Notwithstanding  the  cessation  of  revenue  from  the 
so-called  seceded  States  during  the  last  fiscal  year,  the  increase 
of  the  correspondence  of  the  loyal  States  has  been  sufficient  to 
produce  a  revenue  during  the  same  year  of  $8,299,820.90,  being 
only  $50,000  less  than  was  derived  from  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  during  the  previous  year.  The  expenditures  show  a  still 
more  favorable  result.  The  amount  expended  in  1861  was 
$13,606,759.11.  For  the  last  year  the  amount  has  been  re- 
duced to  $11,125,364.13,  showing  a  decrease  of  about  $2,- 
481,000  in  the  expenditures  as  compared  with  the  preceding 
year,  and  about  $3,750,000  as  compared  with  the  fiscal  year 
1860.  The  deficiency  in  the  Department  for  the  previous  year 
was  $4,551,966.98.  For  the  last  fiscal  year  it  was  reduced  to 
$2,112,814.57.  These  favorable  results  are  in  part  owing  to 
the  cessation  of  mail  service  in  the  insurrectionary  States,  and 
in  part  to  a  careful  review  of  all  expenditures  in  that  Depart- 
ment in  the  interest  of  economy.  The  efficiency  of  the  postal 
service,  it  is  believed,  has  also  been  much  improved.  The 
Postmaster-General  has  also  opened  a  correspondence,  through 
the  Department  of  State,  with  foreign  governments,  proposing 
a  convention  of  postal  representatives  for  the  purpose  of  simpli- 
fying the  rates  of  foreign  postage,  and  to  expedite  the  foreign 
mails.  This  proposition,  equally  important  to  our  adopted 
citizens,  and  to  the  commercial  interests  of  this  country,  has 
been  favorably  entertained  and  agreed  to  by  all  the  govern- 
ments from  whom  replies  have  been  received. 

I  ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  suggestions  of  the 
Postmaster-General  in  his  report  respecting  the  further  legisla- 
tion required,  in  his  opinion,  for  the  benefit  of  the  postal  service. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  reports  as  follows  in  regard  to 
the  public  lands  : 

"The  public  lands  have  ceased  to  be  a  source  of  revenue. 


264  LIFIJ  AND  TIMES  OF 

From  the  1st  of  July,  1861,  to  the  30th  September,  1862,  the 
entire  cash  receipts  from  the  sale  of  lands  were  $137,476.26 — 
a  sum  much  less  than  the  expenses  of  our  land  system  during 
the  same  period.  The  homestead  law,  which  will  take  effect  on 
the  1st  of  January  next,  offers  such  inducements  to  settlers  that 
sales  for  cash  can  not  be  expected,  to  an  extent  sufficient  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  General  Land-office,  and  the  cost  of 
surveying  and  bringiug  the  land  into  market." 

The  discrepancy  between  the  sum  here  stated  as  arising  from 
the  sales  of  the  public  lands,  and  the  sum  derived  from  the 
same  source  as  reported  from  the  Treasury  Department  arises, 
as  I  understand,  from  the  fact  that  the  periods  of  time,  though 
apparently,  were  not  really,  coincident  at  the  beginning  point — 
the  Treasury  report  including  a  considerable  sum  now,  which 
had  previously  been  reported  from  the  interior — sufficiently 
large  to  greatly  overreach  the  sum  derived  from  the  three 
months  now  reported  by  the  Interior,  and  not  by  the 
Treasury. 

The  Indian  tribes  upon  our  frontiers  have,  during  the  past 
year,  manifested  a  spirit  of  insubordinatiou,  and,  at  several 
points,  have  engaged  in  open  hostilities  against  the  white  settle- 
ments in  their  vicinity.  The  tribes  occupying  the  Indian 
country  south  of  Kansas  renounced  their  allegiance  to  the 
United  States,  and  entered  into  treaties  with  the  insurgents. 
Those  who  remained  loyal  to  the  United  States  were  driven 
from  the  country.  The  chief  of  the  Cherokees  has  visited  this 
city  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  former  relations  of  the  tribe 
with  the  United  States.  He  alleges  that  they  were  constrained, 
by  superior  force,  to  enter  into  treaties  with  the  insurgents,  and 
that  the  United  States  neglected  to  furnish  the  protection  which 
their  treaty  stipulations  required. 

In  the  month  of  August  last  the  Sioux  Indians,  in  Minne- 
sota, attacked  the  settlements  in  their  vicinity  with  extreme 
ferocity,  killing,  indiscriminately,  men,  women,  and  children. 
This  attack  was  wholly  unexpected,  and  therefore  no  means 
of  defense  had  been  provided.  It  is  estimated  that  no  less  than 
eight  hundred  persons  were  killed  by  the  Indians,  and  a  large 
amount  of  property  was  destroyed.  How  this  outbreak  was 
induced  is  not  definitely  known,  and  suspicions,  which  may  be 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  265 

unjust,  need  not  be  stated.  Information  was  received  by  the 
Indian  Bureau,  from  different  sources,  about  the  time  hostilities 
were  commenced,  that  a  simultaneous  attack  was  about  to  be 
made  upon  the  white  settlements  by  all  the  tribes  between  the 
Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  State  of 
Minnesota  has  suffered  great  injury  from  this  Indian  war.  A 
large  portion  of  her  territory  has  been  depopulated,  and  a  severe 
loss  has  been  sustained  by  the  destruction  of  property.  The 
people  of  that  State  manifest  much  anxiety  for  the  removal  of 
the  tribes  beyond  the  limits  of  the  State  as  a  guarantee  against 
future  hostilities.  The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  will  fur- 
nish full  details.  I  submit  for  your  special  consideration  whether 
our  Indian  system  shall  not  be  remodeled.  Many  wise  and 
good  men  have  impressed  me  with  the  belief  that  this  can  be 
profitably  done. 

I  submit  a  statement  of  the  proceedings  of  commissioners, 
which  shows  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  the  enterprise 
of  constructing  the  Pacific  Railroad.  And  this  suggests  the 
earliest  completion  of  this  road,  and  also  the  favorable  action  of 
Congress  upon  the  projects  now  pending  before  them  for  en- 
larging the  capacities  of  the  great  canals  in  New  York  and 
Illinois,  as  being  of  vital  and  rapidly  increasing  importance  to 
the  whole  Nation,  and  especially  to  the  vast  interior  region 
hereinafter  to  be  noticed  at  some  greater  length.  I  propose 
having  prepared,  and  laid  before  you  at  an  early  day,  some  in- 
teresting and  valuable  statistical  information  upon  this  subject. 
The  military  and  commercial  importance  of  enlarging  the  Illinois 
and  Michigan  Canal,  and  improving  the  Illinois  River,  is  pre- 
sented in  the  report  of  Colonel  Webster  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
and  now  transmitted  to  Congress.  I  respectfully  ask  atten- 
tion to  it. 

To  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  Congress  of  the 
15th  of  May  last,  I  have  caused  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
of  the  United  States  to  be  organized. 

The  Commissioner  informs  me  that,  within  the  period  of  a 
few  months  this  Department  has  established  an  extensive  system 
of  correspondence  and  exchanges,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
which  promises  to  effect  highly  beneficial  results  in  the  de- 
velopment of  a  correct  knowledge  of  recent  improvements  in 


266  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

agriculture,  in  the  introduction  of  new  products,  and  in  the  col- 
lection of  the  agricultural  statistics  of  the  different  States. 

Also  that  it  will  soon  be  prepared  to  distribute  largely  seeds, 
cereals,  plants,  and  cuttings,  and  has  already  published,  and 
liberally  diffused,  much  valuable  infonnatiou  in  anticipation  of 
a  more  elaborate  report,  which  will  in  due  time  be  furnished, 
embracing  some  valuable  tests  in  chemical  science  now  in  prog- 
ress in  the  laboratory. 

The  creation  of  this  department  was  for  the  more  immediate 
benefit  of  a  large  class  of  our  most  valuable  citizens  ;  and  I  trust 
that  the  liberal  basis  upon  which  it  has  been  organized  will  not 
only  meet  your  approbation,  but  that  it  will  realize,  at  no  dis- 
tant day,  all  the  fondest  anticipations  of  its  most  sanguine 
friends,  and  become  the  fruitful  source  of  advantage  to  all  our 
people. 

On  the  22d  day  of  September  last  a  proclamation  was  issued 
by  the  Executive,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  submitted. 

In  accordance  with  the  purpose  expressed  in  the  second 
paragraph  of  that  paper,  I  now  repectfully  recall  your  attention 
to  what  may  be  called  "compensated  emancipation." 

A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist  of  its  territory,  its  people, 
and  its  laws.  The  territory  is  the  only  part  which  is  of  certain 
dui-ability.  "One  generation  passeth  away,  and  another  gen- 
eration Cometh,  but  the  earth  abideth  forever."  It  is  of  the 
first  importance  to  duly  consider  and  estimate  this  ever-enduring 
part.  That  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  which  is  owned  and 
inhabited  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  well  adapted  to 
be  the  home  of  one  national  family,  and  it  is  not  well  adapted 
for  two  or  more.  Its  vast  extent,  and  its  variety  of  climate 
and  productions,  are  of  advantage  in  this  age  for  one  people, 
whatever  they  might  have  been  in  former  ages.  Steam,  tele- 
graphs, and  intelligence  have  brought  these  to  be  an  advan- 
tageous combination  for  one  united  people. 

In  the  Inaugural  Address  I  briefly  pointed  out  the  total 
inadequacy  of  disunion  as  a  remedy  for  the  differences  between 
the  people  of  the  two  sections.  I  did  so  in  language  which  I 
can  not  improve,  and  which,  therefore,  I  beg  to  repeat: 

"One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is  lurong  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  267 

ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only  substantial  dispute. 
The  fugitive-slave  clause  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for 
the  suppression  of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well 
enforced,  perhaps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community 
where  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the 
law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal 
obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each.  This, 
I  think,  can  not  be  perfectly  cured;  and  it  would  be  worse  in 
both  cases  after  the  separation  of  the  sections  than  before.  The 
foreign  slave-trade,  now  imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ulti- 
mately revived  without  restriction  in  one  section ;  while  fugitive 
slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered 
at  all  by  the  other. 

"Physically  speaking,  we  can  not  separate.  We  can  not 
remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an 
impassable  wall  between  them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be 
divorced,  and  each  go  out  of  the  presence  and  beyond  the  reach 
of  each  other;  but  the  differeut  parts  of  our  country  can  not 
do  this.  They  can  not  but  remain  face  to  face;  aud  intercourse, 
either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is  it 
possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous  or 
more  satisfactory  after  separation  than  before?  Can  aliens  make 
treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be 
more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among 
friends?  Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  can  not  fight  always; 
and  when,  after  ranch  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on  either, 
you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions  as  to  terms  of 
intercourse  are  again  upon  yon." 

There  is  no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable  for  a  national 
boundary  upon  which  to  divide.  Trace  through,  from  east  to 
west,  upon  the  line  between  the  free  and  slave  country,  and 
we  shall  find  a  little  more  than  one-third  of  its  length  are  rivers, 
easy  to  be  crossed,  and  populated,  or  soon  to  be  populated, 
thickly  upon  both  sides;  while  nearly  all  its  remaining  length  are 
merely  surveyor's  lines,  over  which  people  may  walk  back  and 
forth  without  any  consciousness  of  their  presence.  No  part  of 
this  line  can  be  made  any  more  difficult  to  pass  by  writing  it 
down  on  paper  or  parchment  as  a  national  boundary.  The  fact 
of  separation,  if  it  comes,  gives  up  on  the  part  of  the  seceding 


268  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

section  the  fugitive-slave  clause,  along  with  all  other  Constitu- 
tional obligations  upon  the  section  seceded  from,  while  I  should 
expect  no  treaty  stipulation  would  ever  be  made  to  take 
its  place. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty.     The  great  interior  region, 
bounded  east  by  the  Alleghanies,  north  by  the  British   domin- 
ions, west  by  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  south  by  the  line  along 
which  the  culture  of  corn  and  cotton  meets,  and  which  includes 
part   of  Virginia,  part   of  Tennessee,  all  of  Kentucky,   Ohio, 
Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  and  the  Tei-ritories  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and  part 
of  Colorado,   already  has   above   ten   million  people,  and  will 
have  fifty  millions  within  fifty  years,   if  not  prevented  by  any 
political  folly  or  mistake.     It  contains   more  than  one-third  of 
the  country  owned  by  the  United  States — certainly  more  than 
one  milHon  square  miles.     Once  half  as  populous  as  Massachu- 
setts already  is,  it  would  have  more  than  seventy-five  million 
people.     A  glance  at  the  map  shows  that,  territorially  speaking, 
it  is  the  great  body  of  the  Republic.     The  other  parts  are  but 
marginal  borders  to  it,  the  magnificent  region  sloping  west  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific,  being  the  deepest  and  also 
the   richest   in    undeveloped  resources.     In   the  production  of 
provisions,  grains,   grasses,   and  all  which   proceed  from  them, 
this  great  interior  region  is  naturally  one  of  the  most  important 
in  the  world.     Ascertain  from  the  statistics  the  small  proportion 
of  the  region  which  has,  as  yet,  been  brought  into  cultivation, 
and  also  the  large  and  rapidly  increasing  amount  of  its  products, 
and  w'e  shall  be  overwhelmed  with  the  magnitude  of  the  pros- 
pect presented.     And  yet  this  region  has  no  sea-coast,  touches 
no  ocean  anywhere.     As  part   of  one  Nation,  its   people   now 
find,  and  may  forever  find,  their  way  to  Europe  by  New  York, 
to  South  America  and  Africa  by  New  Orleans,  and  to  Asia  by 
San  Francisco.     But   separate   our   common   country  into  two 
nations,  as  designed  by  the  present  Rebellion,   and   every  man 
of  this  great  interior  region  is  thereby  cut  oflT  from  some  one  or 
more  of  these  outlets,  not,  perhaps,  by  a  physical    barrier,  but 
by  embarrassing  and  onerous  trade  regulations. 

And  this  is  true  wherever  a  dividing  or  boundary  li^e  may 
be  fixed.     Place  it  between  the  now  free  and  slave  country,  or 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  269 

place  it  south  of  Kentucky,  or  north  of  Ohio,  and  still  the 
truth  remains,  that  none  south  of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or 
place  north  of  it,  and  none  north  of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or 
place  south  of  it  except  upon  terms  dictated  by  a  government 
foreign  to  them.  These  outlets,  east,  west,  and  south,  are  in- 
dispensable to  the  well-being  of  the  people  inhabiting,  and  to 
inhabit,  this  vast  interior  region.  Which  of  the  three  may  be 
the  best  is  no  proper  question.  All  are  better  than  either;  and 
all  of  right  belong  to  that  people  and  to  their  successors  forever. 
True  to  themselves,  they  will  not  ask  where  a  line  of  separation 
shall  be,  but  will  vow,  rather,  that  there  shall  be  no  such  line. 
Nor  are  the  marginal  regions  less  interested  in  these  communi- 
cations to  and  through  them  to  the  great  outside  world.  Thfey, 
too,  and  each  of  them,  must  have  access  to  this  Egypt  of  the  West 
without  paying  toll  at  the  crossing  of  any  national  boundary. 

Our  national  strife  springs  not  from  our  permanent  part; 
not  from  the  laud  we  inhabit;  not  from  our  natioual  liome- 
stead.  There  is  no  possible  severing  of  this  but  would  multiply, 
and  not  mitigate,  evils  among  us.  In  all  its  adaptations  and 
aptitudes  it  demauds  union  and  abhors  separation.  In  fact,  it 
would  erelong  force  reunion,  however  much  of  blood  and  treasure 
the  separation  might  have  cost. 

Our  strife  pertains  to  ourselves,  to  the  passing  generations 
of  men  ;  and  it  can,  without  convulsion,  be  hushed  forever  with 
the  passing  of  one  generation. 

In  this  view,  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution  and  articles  amendatory  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States: 

"Hesolved,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  (lie 
United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled  (two-thirds  of  both 
Houses  concurring).  That  the  following  articles  be  proposed  to 
the  Legislatures  (or  conventions)  of  the  several  States  as  amend- 
ments to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  all  or  any  of 
which  articles,  when  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  the  said  Legis- 
latures (or  conventions),  to  be  valid  as  part  or  parts  of  the  said 
Constitution,  namely : 

"Article — .  Every  State,  wherein  slavery  now  exists, 
''which  shall  abolish  the  same  therein,  at  any  time,  or  times,  be- 
fore  the   first  day  of  January,  in   the  year  of  our  Lord   one 


270  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

thousand  nine  hundred,  shall  receive  compensation  from  the 
United  States,  as  follows,  to  wit : — 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  shall  deliver  to  every 
such  State  bonds  of  the  United  States,  bearing  interest  at  the 

rate  of  per   cent  per  annum,  to  an  amount  equal  to  the 

aggregate   sum  of  for   each   slave  shown   to  have   been 

therein  by  the  eighth  census  of  the  United  States,  said  bonds 
to  be  delivered  to  such  States  by  installments,  or  in  one  parcel, 
at  the  completion  of  the  abolishment,  accordingly  as  the  same 
shall  have  been  gradual,  or  at  one  time,  within  such  State; 
and  interest  shall  begin  to  run  upon  any  such  bond  only  from 
the  proper  time  of  its  delivery  as  aforesaid.  Any  State  having 
received  bonds  as  aforesaid,  and  afterwards  reintroducing  or 
tolerating  slavery  therein,  shall  refund  to  the  United  States 
the  bonds  so  received,  or  the  value  thereof,  and  all  interest 
paid  thereon. 

"Article — .  All  slaves  who  shall  have  enjoyed  actual 
freedom  by  the  chances  of  the  war  at  any  time  before  the  end 
of  the  rebellion,  shall  be  forever  free ;  but  all  owners  of  such, 
who  shall  not  have  been  disloyal,  shall  be  compensated  for 
them,  at  the  same  rates  as  is  provided  for  States  adopting  abol- 
ishment of  slavery,  but  in  such  way  that  no  slave  shall  be 
twice  accounted  for. 

"  Article  — .  Congress  may  appropriate  money  and  other- 
wise provide  for  colonizing  free  colored  persons,  with  their  own 
consent,  at  any  place  or  places  without  the  United  States." 

I  beg  indulgence  to  discuss  these  proposed  articles  at  some 
length.  Without  slavery  the  Rebellion  could  never  have  ex- 
isted; without  slavery  it  could  not  continue. 

Among  the  friends  of  the  Union  there  is  great  diversity  of 
sentiment  aud  of  policy  in  regard  to  slavery  and  the  African 
race  among  us.  Some  would  perpetuate  slavery ;  some  would 
abolish  it  suddenly,  and  without  compensation ;  some  would 
abolish  it  gradually,  and  with  compensation  ;  some  would  re- 
move the  freed  people  from  us,  and  some  would  retain  them 
with  us;  and  there  are  yet  other  minor  diversities.  Because 
of  these  diversities,  we  waste  much  strength  in  struggles  among 
ourselves.  By  mutual  concession  we  should  harmonize  and  aclf* 
together.     This  would   be  compromise ;    but  it  would  be  com- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  271 

promise  among  the  friends,  and  not  with  the  enemies,  of  the 
Union.  These  articles  are  intended  to  embody  a  plan  of  such 
mutual  concessions.  If  the  plan  shall  be  adopted,  it  is  assumed 
that  emancipation  will  follow,  at  least,  in  several  of  the  States. 

As  to  the  first  article,  the  main  points  are:  first,  the 
emancipation;  secondly,  the  length  of  time  for  consummating 
it — thirty-seven  years ;  and,  thirdly,  the  compensation. 

The  emancipfition  will  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  advocates  of 
perpetual  slavery ;  but  the  length  of  time  should  greatly  miti- 
gate their  dissatisfaction.  The  time  spares  both  races  from  the 
evils  of  sudden  derangement — in  fact,  from  the  necessity  of  any 
derangement — while  most  of  those  whose  habitual  course  of 
thought  will  be  disturbed  by  the  measure  will  have  passed 
away  before  its  consummation.  They  will  never  see  it.  An- 
other class  will  hail  the  prospect  of  emancipation,  but  will  dep- 
recate the  length  of  time.  They  will  feel  that  it  gives  too 
little  to  the  now  living  slaves.  But  it  really  gives  them  much. 
It  saves  them  from  the  vagrant  destitution  which  must  largely 
attend  immediate  emancipation  in  localities  where  their  num- 
bers are  very  great ;  and  it  gives  the  inspiring  assurance  that 
their  posterity  shall  be  free  forever.  The  plan  leaves  to  each 
State,  choosing  to  act  under  it,  to  abolish  slavery  now  or  at  the 
end  of  the  century  or  at  any  intermediate  time  or  by  degrees, 
extending  over  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  period  ;  and  it 
obliges  no  two  States  to  proceed  alike.  It  also  provides  for 
compensation,  and  generally,  the  mode  of  making  it.  This,  it 
■would  seem,  must  further  mitigate  the  dissatisfaction  of  those 
who  favor  perpetual  slavery,  and  especially  of  those  who  are  to 
receive  the  compensation.  Doubtless  some  of  those  who  are  to 
pay,  and  not  to  receive,  will  object.  Yet  the  measure  is  both 
just  and  economical.  In  a  certain  sense,  the  liberation  of 
slaves  is  the  destruction  of  property,  property  acquired  by  de- 
scent or  by  purchase,  the  same  as  any  other  property.  It  is 
no  less  true  for  having  been  often  said,  that  the  people  of  the 
South  are  not  more  responsible  for  the  original  introduction  of 
this  property  than  are  the  people  of  the  North  ;  and  when  it  is 
remembered  how  unhesitatingly  we  all  use  cotton  and  sugar, 
and  share  the  profits  of  dealing  in  them,  it  may  not  be  quite 
safe  to  say  that  the  South  has  been  more  responsible  than  the 


272  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

North  for  its  continuance.  If,  then,  for  a  common  object,  this 
property  is  to  be  sacrificed,  is  it  not  just  that  it  be  done  at  a 
common  charge? 

And  if,  with  less  money,  or  money  more  easily  paid,  we  can 
preserve  the  benefits  of  the  Union  by  this  means  than  we  can 
by  the  war  alone,  is  it  not  also  economical  to  do  it?  Let  us  con- 
sider it,  then.  Let  us  ascertain  the  sum  we  have  expended  in  the 
war  since  compensated  emancipation  was  proposed  last  March,  and 
consider  whether,  if  that  measure  had  been  promptly  accepted, 
by  even  some  of  the  Slave  States,  the  same  sum  would  not  have 
done  more  to  close  the  war  than  has  been  otherwise  done.  If  so, 
the  measure  would  save  money,  aud,  in  that  view,  would  be  a 
prudent  and  economical  measure.  Certainly  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  pay  something  as  it  is  to  pay  nothing;  but  it  is  easier  to  pay 
a  large  sum  than  it  is  to  pay  a  larger  one.  And  it  is  easier  to 
pay  any  sura  when  we  are  able,  than  it  is  to  pay  it  before  we 
are  able.  The  war  requires  large  sums,  and  requires  them  at 
once.  The  aggregate  sum  necessary  for  compensated  emanci- 
pation of  course  would  be  large.  But  it  would  require  no 
ready  cash,  nor  the  bonds,  even,  any  faster  than  the  emancipa- 
tion progresses.  This  might  not,  and  probably  would  not,  close 
before  the  end  of  the  thirty-seven  years.  At  that  time  we  shall 
probably  have  a  hundred  million  people  to  share  the  burden, 
instead  of  thirty-one  millions,  as  now.  And  not  only  so,  but 
the  increase  of  our  population  may  be  expected  to  continue  for 
a  long  time  after  that  period  as  rapidly  as  before ;  because  our 
territory  will  not  have  become  full.  I  do  not  state  this  incon- 
siderately. 

At  the  same  ratio  of  increase  which  we  have  maintained, 
on  an  average,  from  our  first  national  census  in  1790,  until 
that  of  1860,  we  should,  in  1900,  have  a  population  of  one 
hundred  and  three  million  two  hundred  and  eight  thousand 
four  hundred  and  fifteen.  And  why  may  we  not  continue  that 
ratio  far  beyond  that  period  ?  Our  abundant  room — our  broad 
national  homestead — is  our  ample  resource.  Were  our  terri- 
tory as  limited  as  are  the  British  Isles,  very  certainly  our  pop- 
ulation could  not  expand  as  stated.  Instead  of  receiving  the 
foreign  born,  as  now,  we  should  be  compelled  to  send  part  of 
the  native  born  away. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  273 

But  such  is  not  our  condition.  We  have  two  million  nine 
hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand  square  miles.  Europe  has 
three  million  and  eight  hundred  thousand,  with  a  population 
averaging  seventy-three  and  one-third  persons  to  the  square 
mile.  Why  may  not  our  country,  at  some  time,  average  as 
mauy?  Is  it  less  fertile?  Has  it  more  waste  surface,  by 
mountains,  rivers,  lakes,  deserts,  or  other  causes?  Is  it  inferior 
to  Europe  in  any  natural  advantage?  If,  then,  we  are  at  some 
time  to  be  as  populous  as  Europe,  how  soon?  As  to  when 
this  ma]/  be,  we  can  judge  by  the  past  and  the  present ;  as  to 
when  it  will  be,  if  ever,  depends  much  on  whether  we  maintain 
the  Union. 

Several  of  our  States  are  already  above  the  average  of 
Europe — seventy-three  and  a  third  to  the  square  mile.  Mas- 
sachusetts has  157;  Rhode  Island,  133;  Connecticut,  99; 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  each,  80.  Also  two  other  great 
States,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  are  not  far  below,  the  former 
having  63,  and  the  latter  59.  The  States  already  above  the 
European  average,  except  New  York,  have  increased  in  as 
rapid  a  ratio,  since  passing  that  point,  as  ever  before ;  while  no 
one  of  them  is  equal  to  some  other  parts  of  our  country  in 
natural  capacity  for  sustaining  a  dense  population. 

Taking  the  Nation  in  the  aggregate,  and  we  find  its  popula- 
tion and  ratio  of  increase,  for  the  several  decennial  periods,  to 
be  as  follows : — 

1790 3,929,827 

1800 5,305,937  35.02  per  cent  ratio  of  increase. 

1810 7,239,814  36.45 

1820 9,638,131  33.13 

1830 12,866,020  33.49 

1840 17,069,453  32.67 

1850 23,191,876  35.87 

1860 31,443,790  35.58 

This  shows  an  average  decennial  increase  of  34.69  per  cent 
in  population  through  the  seventy  years  from  our  first  to  our 
last  census  yet  taken.  It  is  seen  that  the  ratio  of  increase,  at 
no  one  of  these  seven  periods,  is  either  two  per  cent  below  or 
two  per  cent  above  the  average ;  thus  showing  how  inflexible, 

18— Q 


274  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and,  consequently,  how  reliable,  the  law  of  increase,  in  our  case, 
is.     Assuming  that  it  will  continue,  gives  the  following  results : — 

1870 42,323,341 

1880 56,967,216 

1890 76,677.872 

1900 103,208,415 

1910 138,918,526 

1920 186,984,335 

1930 251,680,914 

These  figures  show  that  our  country  may  be  as  populous  as 
Europe  now  is  at  some  point  between  1920  and  1930 — say 
about  1925 — our  territory,  at  seventy-three  and  a  third  persons 
to  the  square  mile,  being  of  capacity  to  contain  two  hundred 
and  seventeen  million  one  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand. 

And  we  will  reach  this,  too,  if  we  do  not  ourselves  relin- 
quish the  chance  by  the  folly  and  evils  of  disunion,  or  by  long 
and  exhausting  war  springing  from  the  only  great  element  of 
national  discord  among  us.  While  it  can  not  be  foreseen  ex- 
actly how  much  one  huge  example  of  secession,  breeding  lesser 
ones  indefinitely,  would  retard  population,  civilization,  and 
prosperity,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  extent  of  it  would  be 
very  great  and  injurious. 

The  proposed  emancipation  would  shorten  the  war.  perpetu- 
ate peace,  insure  this  increase  of  population,  and  proportion- 
ately the  wealth  of  the  country.  With  these,  we  should  pay  all 
the  emancipation  would  cost,  together  with  our  other  debt, 
easier  than  we  should  pay  our  other  debt  without  it.  If  we 
had  allowed  our  old  national  debt  to  run  at  six  per  cent  per 
annum,  simple  interest,  from  the  end  of  our  Revolutionary 
struggle  until  to-day,  without  paying  anything  on  either  prin- 
cipal or  interest,  each  man  of  us  would  owe  less  upon  that  debt 
now  than  each  man  owed  upon  it  then ;  and  this  because  our 
increase  of  men  through  the  whole  period  has  been  greater  than 
six  per  cent ;  has  run  faster  than  the  interest  upon  the  debt. 
Thus,  time  alone  relieves  a  debtor  nation,  so  long  as  its  popula- 
tion increases  faster  than  unpaid  interest  accumulates  on  its  debt. 

This  fact  would  be  no  excuse  for  delaying  payment  of  what 
is  justly  due;  but  it  shows  the  great  importance  of  time  in  this 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  275 

connection — the  great  advantage  of  a  policy  by  which  we  shall 
not  have  to  pay  until  we  number  a  hundred  millions,  what,  by 
a  different  policy,  we  would  have  to  pay  now,  when  we  num- 
ber but  thirty-one  millions.  In  a  word,  it  shows  that  a  dollar 
will  be  much  harder  to  pay  for  the  war  than  will  be  a  dollar 
for  emancipation  on  the  proposed  plan.  And  then  the  latter 
will  cost  no  blood,  no  precious  life.     It  will  be  a  saving  of  both. 

As  to  the  second  article,  I  think  it  would  be  impracticable 
to  return  to  bondage  the  class  of  persons  therein  contemplated. 
Some  of  them,  doubtless,  in  the  property  sense,  belong  to  loyal 
owners,  and  hence  provision  is  made  in  this  article  for  com- 
pensating such. 

The  third  article  relates  to  the  future  of  the  freed  people. 
It  does  not  oblige,  but  merely  authorizes.  Congress  to  aid  in 
colonizing  such  as  may  consent.  Tliis  ought  not  to  be  regarded 
as  objectionable  on  the  one  hand  or  on  the  other,  insomuch  as  it 
comes  to  nothing,  unless  by  the  mutual  consent  of  the  people 
to  be  deported,  and  the  American  voters  through  their  Repre- 
sentatives in  Congress. 

I  can  not  make  it  better  known  than  it  already  is,  that  I 
strongly  favor  colonization.  And  yet  I  wish  to  say  there  is  an 
objection  urged  against  free  colored  persons  remaining  in  the 
country  which  is  largely  imaginary,  if  not  sometimes  malicious. 

It  is  insisted  that  their  presence  would  injure  and  displace 
white  labor  and  white  laborers.  If  there  ever  could  be  a  proper 
time  for  mere  catch  arguments,  that  time  surely  is  not  now. 
In  times  like  the  present  men  should  utter  nothing  for  which 
they  would  not  willingly  be  responsible  through  time,  and  in 
eternity.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  colored  people  can  displace  any 
more  white  labor  by  being  free  than  by  remaining  slaves  ?  If 
they  stay  in  their  old  places,  they  jostle  no  white  laborers ;  if 
they  leave  their  old  places,  they  leave  them  open  to  white 
laborers.  Logically,  there  is  neither  more  nor  less  of  it. 
Emancipation,  even  without  deportation,  would  probably  en- 
hance the  wages  of  white  labor,  and,  very  surely  would  not 
reduce  them.  Thus,  the  customary  amount  of  labor  would  still 
have  to  be  performed ;  the  freed  people  would  surely  not  do 
more  than  their  old  proportion  of  it,  and,  very  probably,  for  a 
time  would  do  less,  leaving  an  increased  part  to  white  laborers, 


276  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

bring  their  labor  into  greater  demand,  and  consequently  en- 
hancing the  wages  of  it.  With  deportation,  even  to  a  limited 
extent,  enhanced  wages  to  white  labor  is  mathematically  cer- 
tain. Labor  is  like  any  other  commodity  in  the  market — 
increase  the  demand  for  it  and  you  increase  the  price  of  it. 
Reduce  the  supply  of  black  labor  by  colonizing  the  black  laborer 
out  of  the  country,  and  by  precisely  so  much  you  increase  the 
demand  for  and  wages  of  white  labor. 

But  it  is  dreaded  that  the  freed  people  will  swarm  forth, 
and  cover  the  whole  land  ?  Are  they  not  already  in  the  land  ? 
Will  liberation  make  them  any  more  numerous?  Equally  dis- 
tributed among  the  whites  of  the  whole  country,  and  there 
would  be  but  one  colored  to  seven  whites.  Could  the  one,  in 
any  way,  greatly  disturb  the  seven  ?  There  are  many  com- 
munities now,  having  more  than  one  free  colored  person  to 
seven  whites ;  and  this,  without  any  apparent  consciousness  of 
evil  from  it.  The  District  of  Columbia  and  the  States  of  Mary- 
land and  Delaware  are  all  in  this  condition.  The  District  has 
more  than  one  free  colored  to  six  whites ;  and  yet,  in  its  fre- 
quent petitions  to  Congress,  I  believe  it  has  never  presented  the 
presence  of  free  colored  persons  as  one  of  its  grievances.  But 
why  should  emancipation  south  send  the  freed  people  north  ? 
People,  of  any  color,  seldom  run,  unless  there  be  something  to 
run  from.  Heretofore  colored  people,  to  some  extent,  have  fled 
north  from  bondage,  and  now,  perhaps,  from  both  bondage  and 
destitution.  But  if  gradual  emancipation  and  deportation  be 
adopted,  they  will  have  neither  to  flee  from.  Their  old  masters 
will  give  them  wages,  at  least  until  new  laborers  can  be  procured ; 
and  the  freedmen,  in  turn,  will  gladly  give  their  labor  for  the 
wages,  till  new  homes  can  be  found  for  them,  in  congenial 
climes,  and  with  people  of  their  own  blood  and  race.  This 
proposition  can  be  trusted  on  the  mutual  interests  involved. 
And,  in  any  event,  can  not  the  North  decide  for  itself,  whether 
to  receive  them  ? 

Again,  as  practice  proves  more  than  theory  in  any  case, 
has  there  been  any  irruption  of  colored  people  northward  be- 
cause of  the  abolishment  of  slavery  in  this  District  last  spring  ? 

What  I  have  said  of  the  proportion  of  free  colored  persons 
to  the  whites  in  the  District  is  from  the  census  of  1860,  having 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  277 

no  reference  to  persons  called  contrabands,  nor  to  those  made 
free  by  the  Act  of  Congress  abolishing  slavery  here. 

The  plan  consisting  of  these  articles  is  recommended,  not 
but  that  a  restoration  of  the  national  authority  would  be  ac- 
cepted without  its  adoption. 

Nor  will  the  war,  nor  proceedings  under  the  Proclamation 
of  September  22,  1862,  be  stayed  because  of  the  recommendation 
of  this  plan.  Its  timely  adoption,  I  doubt  not,  would  bring 
restoration,  and  thereby  stay  both. 

And,  notwithstanding  this  plan,  the  recommendation  that 
Congress  provide  by  law  for  compensating  any  State  which  may 
adopt  emancipation  before  this  plan  shall  have  been  acted  upon 
is  hereby  earnestly  renewed.  Such  would  be  only  an  advance 
part  of  the  plan,  and  the  same  arguments  apply  to  both. 

This  plan  is  recommended  as  a  means,  not  in  exclusion  of 
but  additional  to  all  others  for  restoring  and  preserving  the 
national  authority  throughout  the  Union.  The  subject  is  pre- 
sented exclusively  in  its  economical  aspect.  The  plan  would,  I 
am  confident,  secure  peace  more  speedily,  and  maintain  it  more 
permanently,  than  can  be  done  by  force  alone  ;  while  all  it 
would  cost,  considering  amounts,  and  manner  of  payment,  and 
times  of  payment,  would  be  easier  paid  than  will  be  the  addi- 
tional cost  of  the  war,  if  we  rely  solely  upon  force.  It  is  much, 
very  much,  that  it  would  cost  no  blood  at  all. 

The  plan  is  proposed  as  permanent  Constitutional  law.  It 
can  not  become  such  without  the  concurrence  of,  first,  two- 
thirds  of  Congress,  and  afterwards,  three-fourths  of  the  States. 
The  requisite  three-fourths  of  the  States  will  necessarily  include 
seven  of  the  Slave  States.  Their  concurrence,  if  obtained,  will 
give  assurance  of  their  severally  adopting  emancipation  at  no 
very  distant  day  upon  the  new  Constitutional  terms.  This 
assurance  would  end  the  struggle  now,  and  save  the  Union 
forever. 

I  do  not  forget  the  gravity  which  should  characterize  a 
paper  addressed  to  the  Congress  of  the  Nation  by  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  Nation.  Nor  do  I  forget  that  some  of  you 
are  my  seniors,  nor  that  many  of  you  have  more  experience 
than  I  in  the  conduct  of  public  afl^airs.  Yet  I  trust  that  in 
view   of  the  great  responsibility   resting    upon  me,   you   will 


278  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

perceive  no  want  of  respect  to  yourselves  in  any  undue  earnest- 
ness I  may  seem  to  display. 

Is  it  doubted,  then,  that  the  plan  I  propose,  if  adopted, 
would  shorten  the  war,  and  thus  lessen  its  expenditure  of  money 
and  of  blood  ?  Is  it  doubted  that  it  would  restore  the  national 
authority  and  national  prosperity,  and  perpetuate  both  indefi- 
nitely ?  Is  it  doubted  that  we  here — Congress  and  Executive — 
can  secure  its  adoption?  Will  not  the  good  people  respond  to 
a  united  and  earnest  appeal  from  us?  Can  we,  can  they,  by 
any  other  means  so  certainly  or  so  speedily  assure  these  vital 
objects?  We  can  succeed  only  by  concert.  It  is  not  "  can  any 
of  us  imaghie  better?"  but  "can  we  all  do  better?"  Object 
whatsoever  is  possible,  still  the  question  recurs  "can  we  do 
better  ?"  The  dogmas  of  the  quiet  past  are  inadequate  to  the 
stormy  present.  The  occasion  is  piled  high  with  difficulty,  and 
we  must  rise  with  the  occasion.  As  our  case  is  new,  so  we  must 
think  anew  and  act  anew.  We  must  disenthrall  ourselves,  and 
then  we  shall  save  our  country. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  can  not  escape  history.  We,  of  this  Con- 
gress and  this  Administration,  will  be  remembered  in  spite  of 
ourselves.  No  personal  significance,  or  insignificance,  can  spare 
one  or  another  of  us.  The  fiery  trial  through  which  we  pass 
will  light  us  down,  in  honor  or  dishonor,  to  the  latest  genera- 
tion. We  say  we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will  not  forget 
that  we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The 
world  knows  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We — even  ive  here — 
hold  the  power  and  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving  freedom 
to  the  slave  we  assure  freedom  to  the  free — honorable  alike  in 
what  we  give  and  what  we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly  save,  or 
meanly  lose,  the  last,  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means  may 
succeed ;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is  plain,  peaceful, 
generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world  will  forever 
applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless. 

The  reverses  in  the  army  and  at  the  polls  greatly- 
emboldened  the  "  Opposition,"  and  Congress  had 
barely  assembled  until  attacks  on  the  Administration 
and   its   policy   began   to   be    made  in   this   quarter. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  279 

The  first  subject  claiming  the  attention  of  these  men 
was  that  of  "unconstitutional"  arrests.  Habeas  cor- 
pus was  again  the  cowardly  and  mischievous  theme. 
Still  nothing  was  directly  accomplished,  as  the 
strength  of  the  war  and  Administration  party  was 
unbroken.  It  was  always  known  beforehand  that 
any  scheme  of  the  "  Opposition  "  to  thwart  the  policy 
of  the  Government  would  fail,  and  could  do  no  more 
than  harass  the  Administration  and  disturb  the 
country,  while  it  gave  hope  to  the  enemy.  Strangely 
enough,  it  remained  to  the  end  one  of  the  apparent 
hallucinations  of  the  leaders  of  this  Northern  factious 
party  that  some  acceptable  terms  could  be  arranged 
with  the  South  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union  as 
it  was.  Recommendations  to  suspend  hostilities 
were  even  made  directly  to  the  President,  on  ficti- 
tious and  mischievous  pretexts,  looking  to  that  end. 
But  fortunately  a  superior  wisdom  controlled  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Nation.  In  a  speech  made  by  Jefferson 
Davis  in  Mississippi,  December  26,  1862,  he  said  : — 

"  After  what  has  happened  during  the  last  two  years, 
my  wonder  is  that  we  consented  to  live  for  so  long  a  time 
with  such  miscreants,  and  have  loved  so  much  a  Govern- 
ment rotten  to  the  core.  Were  it  ever  proposed  again  to 
enter  into  a  union  with  such  a  people,  I  could  no  more 
consent  to  do  it  than  to  trust  myself  in  a  den  of  thieves." 

Yet  this  folly  of  the  "  Opposition  "  went  on,  and 
nothing  ever  happened  to  show  that  it  was  not  a  part 
of  the  spirit  of  error  and  evil  which  actuated  the 
rebel  leaders. 

Notwithstanding  the  numerical    strength    of  the 


280  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

war  and  Administration  party  in  Congress  nothing 
came  of  the  President's  proposition  to  end  the  war 
in  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  on  the  basis  of 
compensated  emancipation.  A  great  part  of  his  mes- 
sage is  taken  up  in  an  earnest  presentation  of  this  plan, 
which,  if  acted  upon  at  once,  would  have  modified 
his  Emancipation  Proclamation;  or  postponed  it,  or 
in  some  way  changed  the  current  of  things.  But  it 
did  not  seem  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  times. 
Senator  Henry  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  said  it  was 
not  the  Divine  way.  And  so  Mr.  Lincoln  subse- 
quently thought. 

A  very  strong  and  almost  successful  effort  was 
made  at  this  session  to  pass  a  bill  providing  for  com- 
pensated emancipation  in  Missouri.  A  bill  for  that 
purpose  passed  in  the  House,  and  somewhat  modified 
was  carried  in  the  Senate.  But  the  House  failed,  on 
the  last  day  of  the  session,  to  agree  to  the  Senate 
bill,  and  thus  ended  forever  this  scheme  for  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  hoped  so  much. 

This  was  the  regular,  short,  biennial  session  of 
Congress  and  ended  on  the  third  day  of  March,  1863. 
The  chief  measures  passed  and  approved  by  the 
President  were  the  various  immense  appropriations 
for  the  expenses  of  the  Government;  a  bill  for  rais- 
ing a  volunteer  force  in  Kentucky  to  serve  in  that 
State,  but  under  the  rules  of  war ;  a  bill  incorporat- 
ing a  National  Association  for  the  support  of  colored 
children  and  aged  colored  women  ;  a  bill  authoriz- 
ing the  President  to  appoint  the  head  of  one  De- 
partment to    fill   the  place    of  the  head  of  another 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  281 

for  a  vacancy  of  six  months ;  to  organize  the  Ter- 
ritories of  Arizona  and  Idaho,  excluding  slavery 
therefrom  ;  to  provide  a  national  currency ;  to 
punish  correspondence  with  rebels ;  the  enrolling  or 
draft  act ;  justifying  the  President  in  his  course  as  to 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  giving  him  further 
authority  in  suspending  it ;  to  authorize  privateering ; 
to  incorporate  a  society  in  Washington  for  the  educa- 
tion of  colored  youth ;  and  on  the  last  day  of  De- 
cember, 1862,  was  approved  the  bill  for  the  admission 
of  West  Virginia  as  a  State  of  the  Union,  one  of  the 
most  needless  and  unwise  measures  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Administration.  Looked  upon  as  a  Republican  party 
measure,  it  was  an  utter  failure,  as  time  has  suffi- 
ciently demonstrated.  And  viewed  from  all  the  points 
really  worthy  of  respect,  the  benefits  and  goods  to 
come  out  of  it  to  the  old  State  or  the  new,  little, 
poor,  mountain  one,  the  measure  can  hardly  be  made 
to  appear  wise.  The  theory  on  which  the  State  was  or- 
ganized was  a  new  one,  and  to  it  the  Administration 
was  long  unwaveringly  opposed.  But  time  and  the 
continuance  of  the  Rebellion  cleared  the  way  for 
the  folly,  which  otherwise  never  could  have  been 
possible.  The  whole  movement  was  a  stupendous 
piece  of  foolishness  on  the  part  of  the  people  of 
West  Virginia,  and  at  the  outset  and  always  it  was 
an  error  to  recognize  their  error.  This  anomalous 
bit  of  history  never  should  have  been  made ;  and  at 
the  end  of  the  Rebellion  Western  Virginia  would 
have  been,  as  was  right,  a  part  of  the  old  recon- 
structed State.  . 


282  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER    XII. 

1862  — WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION  —  ISLAND  No.  10— GEN- 
ERAL POPE  —  NEW  ORLEANS  —  GENERAL  BUTLER  — 
FARRAGUT  AND  HIS  MORTAR  FLOTILLA  —  SHILOH — 
CORINTH  —  PERRYVILLE  —  STONE  RIVER  —  WHERE 
STOOD   THE   GOD    OF   BATTLES. 

"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,) 
"  January  27,  1862.        / 
^^  President'' s  General  War  Order,  No.  1. 

"Ordered,  That  the  22d  day  of  February,  1862,  be 
the  day  for  a  general  .movement  of  the  land  and  naval 
forces  of  the  United  States  against  the  insurgent  forces. 

"That  especially  the  army  at  and  about  Fortress  Mon- 
roe, the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  Army  of  Western 
Virginia,  the  army  near  Mumfordsville,  Kentucky,  the 
army  and  flotilla  at  Cairo,  and  a  naval  force  in  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  be  ready  for  a  movement  on  that  day. 

"That  all  other  forces,  both  land  and  naval,  with  their 
respective  commanders,  obey  existing  orders  for  the  time, 
and  be  ready  to  obey  additional  orders  when  duly  given. 

"That  the  heads  of  Departments,  and  especially  the 
Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy,  with  all  their  subor- 
dinates, and  the  General-in-Chief,  with  all  other  com- 
manders and  subordinates  of  land  and  naval  forces,  will 
severally  be  held  to  their  strict  and  full  responsibilities 
for  the  prompt  execution  of  this  order. 

"Abraham  Lincoln." 

This  extraordinary  order  was  founded  on  two  or 
three   important   circumstances :  the   long  inactivity 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  283 

of  the  army  on  the  Potomac  under  General  McClellan ; 
the  wide-spread  dissatisfaction  on  account  of  its  inac- 
tivity, and  the  persistent  and  constant  clamor  for  its 
movement;  the  change  in  the  head  of  the  War  De- 
partment ;  and  the  growing  sentiment  of  distrust  in 
the  intentions  and  ability  of  General  McClellan,  in 
which  the  President  began  to  share. 

On  the  13th  of  January,  1862,  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
a  Democrat  of  Ohio,  had  taken  the  place  of  Mr.  Cam- 
eron as  Secretary  of  War,  and  it  was  through  his 
instigation  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  worn  and  out  of  patience 
with  McClellan's  delay,  concluded  to  take  the  respon- 
sibility of  ordering  a  general  movement  against  the 
rebels.  There  had  been  a  great  outcry  against  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Stanton,  there  being  many  able 
Republicans  selected  for  the  place  from  which  Mr. 
Cameron  had  been  allowed  to  resign;  but  the  Pres- 
ident had  followed  his  unaided  inclination  in  the 
choice,  and  who  will  say  to-day  that  he  or  any  other 
man  could  have  made  a  better  with  the  whole  world 
to  select  from? 

A  few  days  subsequently  another  war  order  was 
issued,  in  which  the  President  directed  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  to  be  divided  into  five  corps,  under  Irwin 
McDowell,  E.  V.  Sumner,  S.  P.  Heintzelman,  E.  L. 
Keyes,  and  N.  P.  Banks,  and  at  once  organized  for 
the  field.  This  was  immediately  succeeded  by  an 
order  putting  McClellan  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  in  the  field,  and  relieving  him  of  the 
command  of  all  other  departments;  Halleck  the  Com- 
mander   of  the  Department   of  the  Mississippi,  and 


284  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Fremont  of  the  Mountain  Department  of  Virginia, 
being  authorized  to  report  directly  to  the  Secretary 
of  War.  The  President's  order  as  to  the  movement 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  somewhat  modified 
under  General  McClellan's  representations,  and  so 
time  passed  on  in  comparative  quietness  on  the 
Potomac. 

While  this  state  of  affairs  continues  in  the  East, 
a  brief  glance  may  be  made  at  a  more  active  field. 
At  the  time  of  taking  position  at  Columbus,  Ken- 
tucky, the  rebels  had  also  occupied  Island  No.  10,  in 
the  Mississippi,  some  distance  below  that  place.  By 
their  defenses  here,  at  "  Fort  Pillow,"  and  other  strong 
points  above  Memphis,  they  hoped  to  be  able  to  hold 
the  great  river  below  Columbus.  But  after  the  fall 
of  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  it  was  deemed  politic 
to  abandon  Columbus.  A  part  of  the  forces  at  this 
place  went  to  Island  No.  10,  others  were  scattered 
along  the  river  at  New  Madrid  and  other  places,  and 
some  of  them  went  to  form  the  army  A.  S.  Johnston 
was  gathering  to  oppose  Buell  and  Grant.  With  a 
view  to  the  capture  of  Island  No.  10,  in  February, 
1862,  General  Halleck,  at  St.  Louis,  directed  John 
Pope,  with  the  army  under  him  at  Cairo,  considerably 
outnumbering  all  the  rebel  forces  from  Columbus  nnd 
Fort  Pillow,  to  move  down  the  river  and  march  across 
the  country  to  New  Madrid.  Pope  reached  this  place 
on  the  3d  of  March,  a  few  days  after  Polk  had 
abandoned  Columbus.  Finding  the  situation  stronger 
and  more  difficult  than  he  expected,  he  sent  to  Cairo 
for  siege-guns.     He  also  set  to  work,  at  the  sugges- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  285 

tion  of  General  Schuyler  Hamilton,  to  open  a  canal 
from  below  Island  No.  8,  twelve  miles  across  the  low 
marshy  country  to  New  Madrid.  The  river  here 
makes  two  great,  irregular,  horseshoe  bends,  one 
pointing  toward  the  south,  with  Island  No.  10,  and 
the  other  lowrer  down,  pointing  to  the  north,  having 
New  Madrid  at  its  toe  on  the  Missouri  side.  In 
nineteen  days  Pope  had  this  canal  ready  to  give 
passage  to  his  transports.  In  the  meantime  he  had 
planted  batteries  along  the  river  for  several  miles 
below,  and  had  finally  succeeded  in  scaring  the  rebels 
out  of  New  Madrid.  Some  of  them  took  refuge  at 
Island  No.  10,  and  others  crossed  the  river.  Large 
quantities  of  stores  and  arms  here  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Pope.  About  the  middle  of  the  month  Commo- 
dore Foote  had  arrived,  and  begun  to  bombard  the 
works  on  the  island.  On  the  6th  of  April  Pope's 
canal  was  finished,  and  by  this  time  one  or  two  of 
Commodore  Foote's  gun-boats  had,  on  a  dark  night, 
very  ingeniously  contrived  to  run  by  the  batteries 
and  join  Pope  at  New  Madrid.  At  day-break  on  the 
7th  he  began  to  cross  the  river  with  a  large  portion 
of  his  army,  the  rebels  retreating  before  him  and,  at 
the  same  time,  evacuating  Island  No.  10.  The  river 
was  high,  and  at  Tiptonville  it  was  backed  into  the 
marshes  on  the  Tennessee  side,  so  that  the  rebels 
were  completely  hemmed  in.  Their  case  was  now 
without  a  shadow  of  hope.  The  pursuit  of  the 
rebels  was  begun  at  once,  and  before  daylight  on  the 
morning  of  the  8th  of  April  the  bulk  of  them,  six 
thousand  seven  hundred,  had  thrown  down  their  arms 


286  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  surrendered.    On  the  same  day  Commodore  Foote 
had  taken  possession  of  Island  No.  10. 

In  his  report  to  Halleck,  on  the  9th,  General 
Pope  said  :  "  We  have  crossed  this  great  river  with 
a  large  army,  the  banks  of  which  were  lined  with  the 
batteries  of  the  enemy  to  oppose  our  passage;  have 
pursued  and  captured  all  his  forces  and  material  of 
war,  and  have  not  lost  a  man,  nor  met  with  an  acci- 
dent." This  was,  indeed,  a  wonderful  performance, 
and  General  Halleck,  who  was  very  profuse  in  his 
praise  where  it  was  perfectly  agreeable  to  him  to 
apply  it,  said  it  was  the  most  brilliant  affair  of  the 
war  up  to  that  period. 

This  stroke  gave  new  vigor  and  strength  to  the 
Union  cause,  and  opened  the  Mississippi  to  Fort  Pil- 
low. It  had  been  correspondingly  severe  to  the 
rebels,  who  could  poorly  spare  the  little  army  and  the 
large  number  of  guns  and  vast  amount  of  war  sup- 
plies, to  a  great  extent  sacrificed  by  incompetency 
and  cowardice.  Two  or  three  of  their  general  officers 
were  surrendered  to  Pope,  but  in  this  their  cause 
hardly  suffered,  as  the  management,  on  their  part,  at 
Island  No.  10  could  not  have  been  worse. 

But,  in  the  meantime,  the  question  of  the  mastery 
of  the  Mississippi  was  about  to  be  solved  in  another 
quarter.  On  the  25th  of  February  General  Benjamin 
F.  Butler,  with  a  small  force,  sailed  from  Fortress 
Monroe  for  the  capture  of  New  Orleans.  Captain 
D.  G.  Farragut,  who  was  to  co-operate  with  him,  had 
already  sailed  with  his  fleet  for  the  rendezvous  at 
Ship  Island,  in  Mississippi  Sound.     This  expedition 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  287 

was  undertaken  by  the  President  and  Secretary  Stan- 
ton, contrary  to  the  judgment  of  General  McClellan, 
who  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  attempt  would 
fail  with  an  army  of  less  than  fifty  thousand  men. 
Butler's  whole  force  when  assembled  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  was  less  than  fifteen  thousand 
men.  But  the  fleet  under  Flag-officer  Farragut  was 
large  and  powerfully  armed.  Twenty-one  of  the 
vessels  were  mortar-sloops,  under  Captain  David  D. 
Porter,  and  several  of  the  best-built  war-ships  of  tha 
Navy  were  in  the  fleet.  This  was  a  wooden  fleet, 
and  its  operations  in  the  Mississippi  were  destined  to 
shake  a  little  a  decision  reached  by  the  iron-clad 
contest  in  the  Chesapeake,  hereafter  to  be  noticed. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  a  few  days  after  Pope  ap- 
peared before  "  Fort  Pillow,"  above  Memphis,  Farra- 
gut and  Porter  began  the  bombardment  of  Forts 
Jackson  and  St.  Philip,  twenty-five  miles  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and  seventy-five  below 
New  Orleans.  It  was  designed  for  the  mortar 
flotilla  to  reduce  the  forts,  if  possible;  and  if  this 
could  not  be  done,  Farragut  was  to  run  by  them, 
destroy  the  rebel  fleet  above,  and  cut  off"  all  support, 
while  Butler  was  to  find  his  way  through  the 
marshes,  fall  upon  St.  Philip  and  carry  it  by  storm. 
Between  the  two  forts  the  rebels  had  planted  some 
formidable  obstructions  across  the  channel  of  the 
river,  and  above  they  had  a  considerable  fleet,  con- 
sisting of  two  iron-clad  vessels,  a  large  number  of 
river  steamboats  armed  as  well  as  they  would  bear, 
some  floating  batteries,  and  fire-ships.     On  the  night 


288  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

*of  the  24th,  Farragut  with  nine  of  his  vessels  suc- 
ceeded, amidst  a  terrific  cannonade,  in  running  the 
gauntlet  of  the  forts,  and  after  destroying  or  cap- 
turing the  rebel  fleet  and  clearing  all  obstructions 
before  him,  at  one  o'clock  on  the  25th  appeared 
before  New  Orleans  and  demanded  its  surrender. 

Seeing  the  success  of  Farragut,  Butler  pushed 
forward  to  perform  his  part  of  the  task,  the  mortar 
flotilla  also  resuming  the  assault  on  the  forts.  Al- 
though the  rebel  commanders  continued  the  defense 
with  spirit  for  a  time,  it  was  clear  enough  the  mo- 
ment that  Farragut  passed  up  that  the  forts  and  city- 
must  be  surrendered.  By  the  28th  both  forts,  with 
their  vast  armaments,  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Fed- 
erals ;  and  on  the  first  day  of  Mny  General  Butler 
took  possession  of  New  Orleans,  relieving  Commodore 
Farragut  from  a  task  he  was  not  very  fit  or  desirous 
to  continue  to  perform.  Farragut  proceeded  up  the 
river,  capturing  Baton  Rouge,  Natchez,  and  other 
places,  and,  passing  the  fortifications  at  Vicksburg, 
actually  communicated  with  Commodore  Foote's  fleet 
toward  the  close  of  the  month.  But  not  being  able  to 
capture  Vicksburg,  and  the  Government  not  yet  being 
ready  or  able  to  keep  pace  with  his  rapid  movements, 
he  returned  to  the  Gulf.  The  rebel  fleet  on  the 
Mississippi  was  now  destroyed ;  their  great  iron-clad, 
under  way  at  New  Orleans,  was  burned  by  them- 
selves, and  all  their  efforts  toward  ship-building  on 
that  river  broken  up.  These  brilliant  achievements 
were  rapidly  exhausting  the  resources  of  the  Rebell- 
ion, and  narrowing  its  lease  of  life. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  289 

Soon  after  the  capture  of  Fort  Donelson,  General 
Halleck  began  to  prepare  for  an  advance  by  the 
Tennessee  River  on  the  second  line  of  the  rebel 
position,  the  Memphis  and  Charleston  Railroad. 
Early  in  March,  the  army  sailed  up  the  river  from 
Fort  Henry,  under  the  command  of  General  Charles 
F.  Smith,  who  had  distinguished  himself  at  Donelson, 
and  who,  Halleck  wrote  to  McClellan,  was  the  only 
officer  who  could  be  trusted  with  this  important 
movement.  Grant  had  fallen  under  this  great  man's 
displeasure,  and  had  been  ordered  to  turn  over  the 
command  to  Smith,  and  remain  himself  at  Fort  Henry. 
Halleck  reported  Grant  to  McClellan  as  insubordi- 
nate and  negligent  of  duty,  and  the  General-in-Chief 
thought  he  ought  to  be  punished.  Halleck  had  very 
foolishly  based  his  charges  against  Grant  on  an  anony- 
mous letter,  and  was,  perhaps,  predisposed  to  treat 
him  with  disfavor.  But  when  Grant  applied  to  be 
relieved,  and  demanded  an  investigation,  he  refused 
to  allow  anything  of  the  kind,  notified  the  authorities 
at  Washington  that  Grant  was  "  all  right,"  and 
ordered  him  to  prepare  to  resume  the  command  of 
the  force  then  on  the  way  up  the  Tennessee  River. 
On  the  17th  of  March  Grant  reached  Savannah;  poor 
C.  F.  Smith,  in  the  meantime,  being  disabled,  died 
not  long  afterwards,  without  an  opportunity  to  meet 
the  rebels  again.  He  had  chosen  Pittsburg  Landing 
on  the  west  side  of  the  river  as  the  base  of  opera- 
tions, and  this  Grant  accepted. 

Here  on  the  evening  of  the  5th  of  April  Grant 
had  collected  an  army  of  about  thirty-three  thousand 

19— Q 


290  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

effective  men.  "  Pittsburg  Landing  "  was  merely  the 
favorable  point  at  which  the  Corinth  road  approached 
the  river,  the  latter  place  having  some  importance  as 
the  junction  of  two  lines  of  railroad,  and  being  about 
twenty  miles  from  the  Landing.  The  road  ap- 
proaches this  point  in  a  deep  cut  or  ravine,  furnish- 
ing an  easy  outlet  to  the  country  back  of  it  from 
the  river.  At  some  distance  from  Pittsburg  Landing 
two  small  streams,  Snake  Creek  and  Lick  Creek,  one 
below  and  the  other  above,  not  fordable  in  time  of 
high  water  as  at  that  season,  emptied  into  the  Ten- 
nessee. The  distance  between  these  creeks  is  about 
three  miles,  and  the  land  a  broken  table,  fifty  or  a 
hundred  feet  above  the  river,  mainly  covered  with 
timber  without  much  under-growth,  and  cut  in  dif- 
ferent directions  by  irregular  ravines.  The  plat  of 
country  between  these  two  streams  was  somewhat 
compressed  a  mile  or  two  out  by  Owl  Creek,  a  tribu- 
tary of  Snake  Creek.  Owl  and  Snake  Creeks  were 
both  bridged.  Two  and  a  half  miles  out  from  the 
landing  stood  the  old  log  house,  without  windows, 
called  Shiloh  Church.  This  old  cabin,  long  since 
gone,  had  been  used  as  a  camp-meeting  nucleus  in 
the  wonderful,  hair-cracking,  epileptic  stage  of  some 
of  the  Churches. 

About  this  log  hut,  dignified  by  the  name  of 
Shiloh  Church,  on  Saturday  evening,  April  5,  1862, 
with  his  right  resting  near  the  bridge  across  Owl 
Creek,  lay  General  W.  T.  Sherman's  division  of 
Grant's  army.  On  the  left  of  this  position  near  Lick 
Creek  lay  the  left  of  Sherman's  division,  and  some 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  291 

distance  in  advance,  cutting  his  line  near  the  center, 
was  the  division  of  General  Benjamin  M.  Prentiss. 
In  the  rear  of  Sherman  was  the  division  of  General 
John  A.  McCkrnand,  and  a  mile  or  so  to  the  rear 
were  the  divisions  of  Generals  Hurlbut  and  W.  H.  L. 
Wallace.  Lewis  Wallace  was  with  his  division,  over 
six  thousand  strong,  at  and  near  Crump's  Landing, 
six  miles  down  the  river;  and  General  Grant  was, 
for  his  part,  nine  miles  away  at  Savannah,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river.  This  position  was  ex- 
tremely favorable  for  the  Union  army,  which  was, 
omitting  the  division  of  Lewis  Wallace,  about  seven 
or  eight  thousand  less  than  that  of  the  rebels,  over 
forty  thousand  strong,  and  ably  commanded  by  Al- 
bert Sidney  Johnston,  and  then  supposed  to  be 
mainly  at  Corinth,  twenty  miles  away. 

When  the  preparation  for  this  movement  began, 
General  Don  Carlos  Buell  was  at  Nashville  at  the 
head  of  what  was  called  the  Army  of  the  Ohio,  and 
not  in  the  department  commanded  by  General  Hal- 
leck.  Halleck  notified  him  of  his  intended  move- 
ment and  invited  him  to  join  him,  believing  correctly 
that  he  would  need  all  the  help  he  could  get.  The 
telegraphic  correspondence  of  these  two  men  about 
this  matter  is  not  now  an  agreeable  thing  to  reflect 
upon,  and  would  have  been  far  less  so  at  that  crit- 
ical period. 

Buell  sent  to  Halleck:  "What  can  I  do  to  aid 
you  ?" 

Halleck  replied :  "  Why  not  come  to  the  Tennes- 
see and  operate  with  me?" 


292  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

After  a  few  evasive  passages  more  between  them, 
Halleck  again  sent  to  Buell:  "You  do  not  say 
whether  we  are  to  expect  any  re-enforcements  from 
Nashville." 

This  contemptible  coquetting  about  personal  dis- 
tinction was  fortunately  stopped  by  the  President's 
order  on  the  11th  of  March,  extending  the  eastern 
line  of  Halleck's  department  into  East  Tennessee, 
and  so  including  Buell.  Halleck,  who  was  in  great 
earnest  about  his  grand  project,  was  not  slow  in 
availing  himself  of  this  fortunate  turn,  and  at  once 
ordered  Don  Carlos  to  march  with  the  greater  part 
of  his  army  to  his  aid.  But  for  a  man  who  was 
characteristically  slow  in  his  movements,  except 
when  on  the  battle-field,  this  change  came  a  few 
days  too  late ;  too  late,  at  all  events,  to  prevent  the 
national  disaster  of  the  6th  of  April.  Although 
Buell  was  urged  to  move  with  all  possible  expedi- 
tion, it  does  not  appear  beyond  dispute  that  he  did 
anything  of  the  kind.  He  built  bridges,  and  traveled 
after  his  own  notion;  and  it  is  pretty  clear  that  had 
it  not  been  for  the  energy  and  anxiety  of  his  ad- 
vance division  commander,  General  William  Nelson, 
he  would  not  have  been  up  in  time  to  engage  in  the 
battle  of  Shiloh  at  all. 

The  rebel  commander  was  well  aware  of  the 
movement  of  Buell,  and  made  every  effort  to  fight 
Grant  before  he  could  join  him.  On  Friday  he  left 
Corinth  with  his  whole  available  force,  and  hoped  to 
be  able  to  fall  upon  the  Federals  early  the  next 
morning.     But  a  series  of  ill  circumstances  befell  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  293 

rebel    movements    on    Friday    night    and    the    next 
morning,  and  most  of  Saturday  had  gone  before  they 
were  ready  to  make  the  strike.     It  was  then  thought 
by  John  C.  Breckinridge,  and  some  other  of  the  gen- 
eral  officers,  that   they  had   lost    their   opportunity, 
and  as  there  would   after   that  be  no  chance  to  sur- 
prise  the    Union   forces,  they   should   retrace   their 
steps,  and   not  risk   a   fight  at  that   time.     But  of 
their   movements   up   to   Saturday  night,  there   was 
hardly  a  suspicion   in   the    Union  army.     Grant  had 
been   on   the   ground   that   day,  and    there   was,  no 
doubt,  the   general   impression   among  the  Union  of- 
ficers that  the  rebels  were  quite  active  in  their  front, 
at  a  respectful   distance,  and   that  they  did  not  con- 
template an  attack  for  several  days.     Thus  far  their 
movements  were    a    surprise   to   the   national  army; 
and  their  coming  in  mass  at  dawn   on   Sunday  was 
also   to   some    extent  a  surprise,  although  the  whole 
army  was  aware  of  an  unusual  demonstration  in  front 
an  hour  or  two   before   that  time.     The  rebels  were 
well  aware  of  their  general  disadvantnges  in  making 
the   assault,  of  the   favorable   locality  of  the   Union 
army,  and  of  the  impossibility  of  their  making  flank 
movements ;    and,  perhaps,   they    were    aware    that 
General  Grant  had  spent  three  weeks  in  this  strong 
position  without   felling  a   tree,  rearing  any  kind  of 
defenses,  or  even  planting  a  battery.     Had  Johnston 
struck  the   Union  army  on  Saturday  morning,  there 
is  no  certain  evidence  that  his  fate  would  not  have 
been    different.     Still   there  was   no   more  of  a   sur- 
prise   on  the    part  of  the    Union   forces  on  Sunday 


294  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

morning  than  has  often  occurred  before  battles,  and 
about  which  much  less  was  said. 

Grant  was  down  at  Savannah,  it  is  true,  when  he 
should  have  been  on  the  field  with  his  army,  but  as 
early  as  three  o'clock  Sunday  morning  Prentiss  or- 
dered a  reconnoissance,  and  this  small  force  struck 
the  rebel  outposts  when  the  battle  began  at  some  dis- 
tance in  front  of  the  Union  line,  the  full  character  of 
the  conflict  being  barely  realized  until  the  rebel  shot 
and  shell  came  crashing  tiirough  the  trees. 

Three  or  four  hours  afterwards  Grant  reached  the 
field,  and  found  that  the  chances  were,  even  then,  very 
decidedly  against  him.  Still  characteristically,  he 
went  to  work  as  if  this  were  not  the  case.  Lewis 
Wallace  was  ordered  forward  from  Crump's,  in  order 
to  strike  the  rebels  on  Sherman's  right,  but  as  the 
army  was  pressed  back.  Grant  seeing  that  his  position 
on  coming  out  would  be  perilous  without  the  ability 
to  resist  the  odds  which  could  be  readily  thrown 
against  him,  sent  to  him  to  return  to  the  river  road 
and  come  in  at  the  bridge  across  Snake  Creek.  This 
consumed  the  day,  and  Wallace  did  not  take  his  po- 
sition by  the  side  of  Sherman  until  after  dark. 

That  night  the  divisions  of  General  Nelson,  A. 
McDowell  McCook,  and  a  part  of  General  Thomas  L. 
Crittenden's  arrived,  crossed  the  river  and  took  posi- 
tions on  the  left  of  Grant's  beaten  army.  One  di- 
vision of  Buell's  tardy  force  did  not  come  up  until 
after  the  battle  was  finally  ended  on  Monday. 

When  darkness  closed  the  conflict  on  Sunday,  the 
Union  army  had  been  beaten  back  over  two  miles,  at 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  295 

a  great  loss  of  life.  But  in  the  last  assault  the  reb- 
els had  been  repulsed,  when  they  expected  to  end 
their  day's  work  by  the  utter  destruction  of  the 
Union  army.  Their  commander,  their  best  general, 
a  splendid  soldier,  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  had 
fallen,  and  it  was  not  certain  that  their  affairs  would 
go  so  well  on  the  following  day.  The  position  of 
the  Union  army  was  now  much  better,  and  General 
Grant  believed  himself  able  to  whip  the  rebels  still, 
even  had  not  Buell  come  up  that  night.  Although 
ten  thousand  of  his  men  had  been  knocked  out  of 
the  contest,  with  Wallace's  division  he  could  have 
brought  into  the  battle  on  Monday  twenty-five  thou- 
sand men  at  least.  He  believed  the  rebel  losses 
had  been  very  great.  But  Buell's  army  added 
greatly  to  his  preponderance,  and  at  daylight  he 
moved  forward  to  victory. 

On  Sunday  night  the  following  dispatch  was 
started  on  its  way  to  Richmond : — 

"Battle-field  of  Shiloh,         \ 
"  Via  Corinth  and  Chattanooga,  April  6,  1862.  j 

"General  S.  Cooper,  Adjutant-General: — 

"We  have  this  morning  attacked  the  enemy  in  strong 
position  in  front  of  Pittsburg ;  and,  after  a  severe  battle 
of  ten  hours,  thanks  to.  Almighty  God,  gained  a  complete 
victory,  driving  the  enemy  from  every  position.  The 
loss  on  both  sides  is  heavy,  including  our  commander-in- 
chief,  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  who  fell  gallantly 
leading  his  troops  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight. 

"G.  T.  Beauregard,  General  Commanding." 

This  announcement  seems  at  first  glance,  perhaps, 
to  be   strictly   true,   and   there   is    nothing   about   it 


296  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

necessarily  misleading.  But  from  the  last  position 
taken  by  the  Union  troops  just  before  night,  Beaure- 
gard had  failed  to  drive  them,  and  here  he  had  made 
a  desperate  attempt,  in  hope  of  pushing  them  into 
the  river,  slaughtering  them,  or  capturing  them. 
Strictly  speaking  he  had  driven  them  from  every 
position  except  the  last,  v^here  he  had  met  a  fearful 
repulse,  and  the  to-morrow  would  bring  forth — he 
knew  not  what.  Beauregard's  thanking  Heaven  for 
the  general  success  of  that  bloody  Sunday  was  mere 
etiquettical  formality,  but  it  serves  here  for  record- 
ing a  thought  on  the  general  subject. 

The  Union  soldiers  were  the  assailants  at  the  first 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  that  was  on  Sunday.  Some 
wise  men  held  that  this  was  the  cause  of  the  defeat 
of  the  national  army.  "  The  Sabbath  is  the  Lord's." 
This  fact  was  utterly  neglected,  and  hence  the  lesson 
of  defeat.  God  sees  men  on  the  earth  only  in  their 
purposes.  It  was  in  the  heart  of  the  rebel  generals 
to  be  the  assailants  on  the  same  Sabbath  morning. 
Their  supposed  necessities  outweighed  their  rever- 
ence for  Him  who  instituted  this  Day,  and  the  rebels 
inaugurated  the  battle,  and  fought  from  dawn  until 
dark  on  the  Sabbath  at  Shiloh.  And  they  won. 
The  riotous  shouts,  which  in  former  times  had  dis- 
turbed the  quietness  of  the  sacred  Day  at  "  Shiloh 
Church,"  were  nothing  to  be  compared  with  this. 
No  Sabbath  since  the  beginning  of  time  on  the  Ten- 
nessee River  had  been  like  this  one  in  the  horrid 
crash  and  suffering  of  war.  But  the  rule  that  applied 
at  Manassas,  according    to    the    reasoning    of  some, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  297 

could  not  apply  at  Pittsburg  Landing.  Yet  the  san- 
guine and  so-called  Christian  rebels  said  that  the  God 
of  Battles  gave  them  the  victory  in  both  cases.  The 
righteousness  of  the  cause  may  have  mitigated  the 
evil  of  disobedience  at  Shiloh.  There  never  was  a 
time  when  men  did  not  believe  that  Heaven  protects 
all  just  causes.  And  what  people  at  war  have  not 
been  in  the  right  in  their  pretensions  or  belief,  and 
especially  in  their  prayers  ? 

On  the  third  day  of  May,  soon  after  the  disasters 
to  the  Rebellion  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  Jef- 
ferson Davis  issued  a  fast-day  proclamation  in  which 
he  said  that  they  trusted  in  the  justness  of  their 
cause  and  the  protection  of  their  God.  And  the 
16th  of  May  was  to  be  spent  in  prayer  to  dispel  the 
gloom  of  disaster,  to  drive  sorrow  from  the  Southern 
hearthstone,  to  beseech  the  protection  of  the  All- 
powerful,  and  to  ask  that  strength  and  victory  be 
given  to  the  fresh  hosts  the  rebels  were  sending 
forth.  But  this  kind  of  thing  was  oft  repeated,  and 
all  over  the  Sunny  South  constantly,  earnestly,  sadly, 
joyfully,  or  pretentiously  and  flippantly,  went  out 
the  cry  :  "Victory,  0  Lord!"  So  in  the  North,  the 
sjinguine  and  pious  patriot  believed  that  the  God  of 
Battles  was  ranged  on  the  side  of  those  who  would 
preserve  the  Nation  whole,  however  at  times  his  face 
might  be  overshadowed  or  turned  aside.  And  the 
President  issued  his  fast  and  thanksgiving  proclama- 
tions, and  the  Great  God  of  Peace  was  importuned 
day  and  night,  in  public  and  in  private,  in  prose  and 
in  verse,  and  with  all  manner  of  tongues,  to   direct 


298  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  battle  against  the  Rebellion,  to  crown  with  suc- 
cess the  glorious  cause  of  the  Union,  and  restore  the 
national  authority,  and  renew  forever  the  days  of 
peace  and  prosperity  in  all  the  beloved  country.  If 
the  people  of  the  South  were  less  in  number,  and 
weaker  in  physical  means,  they  were,  perhaps,  not 
behind  the  North  in  the  quantity  and  power  of  their 
praying.  Yet  it  did  not  avail  much.  Or  were  the 
Ood  of  Battles  and  the  cause  of  right  powerless 
against  the  Yankees  ?  Or  with  the  overthrow  of  the 
Rebellion  was  not  all  pretension  to  the  right  cause  on 
the  part  of  the  South  also  overthrown  ?  According 
to  their  own  religious  faith,  certainly.  The  end  of 
the  pretension  and  the  argument  must  appear  in  the 
result ;  and  in  a  religious  aspect  the  Rebellion  was  a 
burlesque  on  man,  if  not  also  on  his  Creator. 

I  may  be  pardoned,  perhaps,  by  those  who  will 
but  take  the  pains  to  reflect  long  enough,  in  ventur- 
ing the  suggestion  here  that  there  never  have  been 
in  America  (or  on  the  earth,  for  that  matter)  prayers 
so  loud,  or  noises  so  stupendous  and  awful  as  to 
reach  the  spiritual  ear  of  the  Great  Jehovah.  The 
sound  of  the  woodman's  ax  and  the  awful  crash  and 
roar  of  the  battle-field  are  alike  unnoted  by  the  all- 
perfect  faculties  of  God.  The  nest  in  the  bush  and 
the  temple  on  the  mountain  are  alike  hidden  from 
the  spiritual  All-seeing  Eye. 

From  the  motives,  the  hearts,  and  the  thoughts, 
the  inward  activities,  Heaven  reads  the  external  acts 
of  men.  On  the  mind  side,  the  real  life  side,  the 
side  of  causes,  God  sees  and  knows  all  that  suits  his 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  299 

purpose  of  the  outward  affairs  of  men  and  matter. 
There  it  is  that  he  cares  for  the  falling  sparrow,  and 
numbers  the  hairs  of  the  head.  There  he  takes 
account  of  what  manner  of  creature  man  is  in  the 
least  and  the  greatest  thing.  Do  not  the  practices 
of  men  and  the  facts  of  history  belie  the  often  gross 
and  material  interpretations  of  Heaven's  relation  to 
earth,  of  the  ways  of  God  and  the  ways  of  men? 
But  the  general  fact,  which  no  man  can  shirk,  remains 
the  same,  unaffected  by  this  shifting  in  the  mere 
interpretation. 

When  Monday  morning  broke  on  the  field  of 
Shiloh  there  was  no  indication  that  the  victors  of 
the  day  before  were  ready  and  anxious  to  renew  the 
conflict.  Before  Lewis  Wallace  and  McClernand  the 
rebels  now  gave  way,  and  were  pressed  back  over 
the  ground  they  had  gained.  Sherman  in  the  center 
also  pressed  forward,  driving  them  before  him;  and 
thus  affairs  were  turning  before  Buell  got  in  on  to 
the  left,  and  the  rebels  were  apprised  that  Grant 
had  been  re-enforced.  The  battle  now  waged  with 
great  fury,  the  rebels,  with  skill  and  stubbornness, 
contesting  every  step.  But  the  odds  against  them 
was  now  too  great,  and  soon  after  noon  Beauregard 
gave  orders  for  the  retreat  to  begin.  Still,  the  fight- 
ing went  on,  and  was  kept  up  until  the  whole  army 
had  withdrawn  from  the  field  before  four  o'clock. 
This  retreat  from  the  face  of  a  fresh  and  powerful 
army,  without  pursuit,  was  highly  creditable  to  Gen- 
eral Beauregard,  and  indicated  the  respect  the  Federal 
Generals  yet   had    for   the  fighting  qualities  of  his 


300  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

broken  army.  On  Tuesday  Sherman  started  in  pur- 
suit, but  finding  the  rebels  were  falling  back  in  great 
distress  to  what  was  erroneously  believed  to  be  their 
strongly  fortified  position  at  Corinth,  he  returned 
to  Shiloh. 

The  victory  was  with  the  Union,  and,  perhaps, 
was  not  doubtfully  so  on  Sunday  night,  even  had 
Buell  not  comef  up  with  his  troops,  but  it  had  been 
dearly  bought.  In  the  two  days'  fighting  Grant's 
army  lost  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  nearly 
eleven  thousand  men ;  and  Buell's  loss  was  in  the 
neighborhood  of  two  thousand.  The  rebel  loss  was 
about  twelve  thousand. 

Beauregard  now  sent  to  Richmond  this  dispatch : — 

"  Corinth,  Tuesday,  April  8,  1862. 
"  To  the  Secretary  of  War,  Richmond : 

"We  have  gained  a  great  and  glorious  victory;  eight 
or  ten  thousand  prisoners  and  thirty-six  pieces  of  cannon. 
Buell  re-enforced  Grant,  and  we  retired  to  our  intrench- 
ments  at  Corinth,  which  we  can  hold.  Losses  heavy  on 
both  sides.  Beauregard." 

While  the  rebel  General's  report  of  Sunday  night 
was  mainly  true,  this  one  is  mainly  false,  and  its 
whole  tendency  was  to  mislead.  In  the  sequel  to 
the  events  just  recorded,  it  will  be  especially  appli- 
cable in  showing  the  spirit  of  exaggeration  which  con- 
trolled the  times,  whether  for  or  against  the  Union. 

Four  days  after  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing 
or  Shiloh,  General  Halleck  arrived  and  took  command 
of  the  army,  which  was  soon  increased  to  one  hun- 
dred  thousand  men.     But  not  until  the  end  of  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  301 

month  did  he  start  toward  Corinth.  He  was  an  ex- 
ceedingly cautious  soldier,  and  believing  that  Grant 
had  committed  a  great  mistake  in  not  fortifying  his 
position  at  Shiloh,  he  now  fell  into  the  opposite  ex- 
treme of  stopping  to  intrench  at  every  advance  he 
made  toward  Corinth. 

The  Richmond  authorities  had,  in  the  meantime, 
made  every  exertion,  by  conscription  and  otherwise, 
to  raise  Beauregard's  army  to  the  necessary  strength 
to  cope  with  Halleck;  and  although  over  a  hundred 
thousand  men  were  collected  at  Corinth  he  was 
able  to  keep  up  an  effective  force  of  but  little  over 
half  of  .the  number.  At  last  he  was  forced  to  retreat, 
and  surrender  all  this  region  to  the  victorious  Fed- 
erals. And  now  again,  notwithstanding  his  railroad 
communications  were  broken  by  some  of  Halleck's 
active  raiders,  with  great  skill  he  succeeded  in  con- 
veying off  the  main  part  of  his  stores  and  all  his 
arms  of  every  kind,  and  on  the  30th  of  May  actually 
slipped  away  with  his  whole  army.  On  the  same 
day  the  Union  troops  entered  Corinth,  and  found 
that  the  place  had  only  been  naturally  strong;  the 
rebel  fortifications  had  been  fictitious  and  inconse- 
quential, a  piece  of  information  which  came  too  late 
to  benefit  the  Union  army. 

The  rebel  army  was  greatly  demoralized,  and  it 
was  hoped  during  the  excitement  of  the  retreat  the 
thousands  of  stragglers  would  give  themselves  up  to 
their  loyal  pursuers.  Pope  wrote  to  Halleck,  that 
from  what  he  could  gather  from  various  sources  this 
would  be  the  case,  whereupon  the  latter,  who  had  a 


302  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

wonderful  faculty  for  putting  the  best   end  forward' 
on  paper,  sent  this  bit  of  fiction  to  Washington  : — 

"  General  Pope,  with  forty  thousand  men,  is  thirty 
miles  south  of  Corinth,  pushing  the  enemy  hard.  He 
already  reports  ten  thousand  prisoners  and  deserters  from 
the  enemy,  and  fifteen  thousand  stand  of  arms  captured." 

But  Pope  had  not  authorized  such  a  statement, 
and  had  only  expressed  it  as  his  belief  that  ten 
thousand  of  the  stragglers  would  come  in.  It  wa& 
all  a  mistake ;  they  did  not  come  in.  Beauregard 
subsequently  criticised  this  dispatch  of  Halleck's 
with  great  severity,  as  a  wicked  fabrication;  and  in 
so  doing  forgot  his  famous  dispatch  on  the  8th  of 
April,  when  he  was  twenty  miles  from  the  scene  of  . 
his  defeat  on  the  previous  day.  The  rebel  authori- 
ties had  never  been  well  disposed  toward  Beauregard, 
and  now  the  feeling  was  so  strong  against  him  that 
from  this  time  forward  his  name  ceases  to  be  of  note 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Rebellion.  Nothing  that  he  had 
done  justified  the  light  in  which  he  was  held  by  Jef- 
ferson Davis.  The  evidence  is  wanting  to  prove  that 
he  was  not  one  of  the  most  able  of  the  Southern 
Generals. 

On  the  1st  of  June  Fort  Pillow  was  abandoned, 
and  a  few  days  later  the  rebel  fleet  was  destroyed  at 
Memphis  by  Commodore  Charles  H.  Davis,  and  that 
city  surrendered  to  him.  The  Mississippi  was  now 
open  to  Vicksburg,  and  the  cause  of  the  Rebellion  in 
the  West  looked  gloomy  enough.  But  in  July  Hal- 
leck  was  taken  to  Washington,  and  the  evil  effects 
of  dispersion   and    the    lack  of  a   controlling   head 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  303 

were  felt  in  the  operations   of   the  Union  forces  in 
this  quarter. 

Buell  was  again  detached  and  sent  toward  Chat- 
tanooga, and  Grant  took  up  his  position  at  Corinth, 
Grand  Junction,  and  other  points  on  the  Memphis 
and  Charleston  Raih'oad. 

At  Corinth,  which  had  been  strongly  fortified  by 
Halleck  and  Grant,  Rosecrans  was  in  command  with 
about  twenty  thousand  men.  Here  on  the  4th  of 
October  he  was  attacked  by  a  greatly  superior  force 
of  rebels  under  Earl  Van  Dorn  and  Sterling  Price ; 
but  after  a  desperate  struggle  they  were  repulsed 
and  put  to  flight,  leaving  about  fifteen  hundred  of 
their  dead  on  the  field.  Twenty -two  hundred  pris- 
oners and  twice  as  many  small  arms  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Union  forces. 

Soon  after  this  the  vast  stores  for  Grant's  army 
collected  at  Holly  Springs  were  destroyed  by  the 
rebels,  when  the  Mississippi  was  made  the  base  of 
operations  and  supplies. 

In  December,  General  Sherman,  under  Grant's 
orders,  made  an  attack  on  Vicksburg,  but  was  not  suc- 
cessful, and  withdrew.  To  compensate  him  for  this 
failure  Sherman  got  permission  to  move  up  the  Arkan- 
sas River  against  Arkansas  Post,  which  he  easily 
captured,  with  its  stores,  arms,  and  five  thousand 
prisoners.  With  this  and  several  minor  engagements 
the  year  1862  closed  upon  General  Grant's  opera- 
tions. In  the  meantime  Buell,  who  can  not  be  re- 
lieved of  the  imputation  of  being  culpably  slow  in  his 
movements,  made    a   race    with    Braxton    Bragg   to 


304  -  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Kentucky.  The  rebel  authorities  had  revived  the 
original  scheme  of  making  a  desperate  effort  to  carry 
the  war  to  the  North.  Lee,  accordingly,  had  been 
ordered  to  march  into  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania, 
and  Bragg,  who  had  beaten  the  laggard  Buell  to 
Chattanooga,  was  directed  to  strike  for  Kentucky, 
threaten  Cincinnati,  and  capture  Louisville  with  the 
vast  army  supplies  collected  there.  From  East  Ten- 
nessee Edmund  Kirby  Smith  entered  Kentucky  by 
Big  Creek  Gap,  and  moving  with  great  celerity  under 
Bragg's  order,  near  Richmond  struck  the  Union  forces 
under  the  temporary  command  of  General  M.  D. 
Manson,  General  William  Nelson  being  absent  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  conflict,  and  in  a  series  of  en- 
gagements utterly  routed  them,  and  captured  several 
thousand  prisoners.  Smith  then  rushed  on,  pushing 
everything  before  him,  a  part  of  his  force  actually 
striking  the  Ohio  River  at  Augusta,  and  with  his 
main  army  throwing  Cincinnati  into  the  wildest 
consternation. 

In  the  meantime  Buell  had  discovered  the  real 
intentions  of  Bragg  to  strike  Louisville,  and  managed 
by  a  mere  accident  to  reach  that  city  in  time  to  save 
it  from  falling  a  prey,  with  all  its  rich  booty,  to 
the  hungry  horde  from  the  South.  Bragg  had  now 
reached  Frankfort,  where  he  went  through  the  farce 
of  setting  up  a  new  State  government,  without  diflj- 
culty  finding  a  tool  for  the  purpose  in  Richard  Hawes, 
of  Bourbon  County.  But  Bragg  knew  this  whole 
business  was  destined  to  be  short-lived.  Kirby  Snaith 
now  hurriedly  turned  his  face  toward  the  South,  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  305 

sweeping  back  through  the  rich  Blue-grass  region, 
where  the  neutrals  had  thus  far  fattened  on  the  war, 
the  work  of  plunder  was  complete. 

Buell,  in  the  meantime,  had  started  from  Louis- 
ville to  intercept  Bragg,  now  with  his  whole  army 
united,  and  moving  with  miles  of  live-stock  and  other 
booty  toward  Tennessee.  Bragg  was  greatly  impeded 
in  his  movements  in  his  anxiety  to  save  the  much- 
needed  booty  for  which  he  had  come,  a  vaster  herd 
of  fine  beef-cattle,  horses,  mules,  and  hogs  than  had 
ever  before  marched  out  of  Kentucky,  and  that  with- 
out higgling  as  to  prices  or  a  question  in  relation 
to  the  currency.  Bragg  was,  besides,  constitution- 
ally slow. 

At  Perry ville,  in  Boyle  County,  near  Danville,  a 
part  of  Buell's  forces  overtook  Bragg,  when  a  des- 
perate battle  was  fought  on  the  afternoon  of  the  8th 
of  October,  1862,  night  closing  the  conflict,  which 
the  rebel  general  knew  would  be  renewed  on  the 
succeeding  morning,  with  the  prospect  of  the  utter 
defeat  of  his  army  and  all  the  purposes  of  his  adven- 
ture. Leaving  a  thousand  of  his  wounded  on  the 
field  he  slipped  away  in  the  night,  passing  through 
Cumberland  Gap  into  East  Tennessee,  and  returning 
again  to  Chattanooga.  At  Cumberland  Gap  he  fully 
expected  to  capture  the  Union  force  under  General 
George  W.  Morgan,  but  in  this  he  was  wonderfully 
mistaken,  Morgan  having  destroyed  the  Government 
property  and  made  his  way  through  the  mountains  to 
the  Ohio. 

Rosecrans  superseded  Buell,  whose  conduct  had 

20— Q 


306  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

not  been  satisfactory,  and  at  once  began  to  reorganize 
the  army  at  Nashville.  On  the  26th  of  December, 
Rosecrans,  with  about  forty-three  thousand  men,  left 
Nashville  with  a  view  of  fighting  Bragg,  who  was 
then  at  Murfreesboro,  with  a  force  numbering  nearly 
twenty  thousand  more. 

Here,  on  the  last  day  of  December,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Stone  River,  a  desperate  battle  was  fought, 
the  rebels  being  finally  repulsed,  with  terrible  slaugh- 
ter, but  each  army  holding  substantially  the  position 
it  occupied  at  the  beginning  of  the  contest.  On  New- 
Year's  day  the  two  foes  lay  in  full  view  of  each 
other,  without  offering  to  renew  the  fight.  On  the 
2d,  Bragg  made  another  desperate  assault,  mainly 
with  his  division,  commanded  by  John  C.  Breckin- 
ridge, only  a  short  time  before  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  had  led  a  part  of  the  rebel 
force  at  Shiloh.  In  a  few  minutes  two  thousand  of 
these  brave  men  were  cut  down,  and  that  night  Bragg 
gave  up  the  contest,  and  marched  back  toward  Chat- 
tanooga. The  rebels  lost  in  this  fierce  conflict  nearly 
fifteen  thousand  men;  and  nearly  twelve  thousand 
of  the  Union  army  were  counted  as  "killed,  wounded, 
and  missing  or  prisoners." 

Extensive  rebel  raids  toward  the  North  were  now 
at  an  end,  as  were  also  all  hopes  of  aid  from  the 
Northwest,  and  it  was  evident  that  henceforward  the 
Rebellion  must  be  content  with  makinsr  the  most  of 
its  opportunities  for  defense,  as  its  sides  were  pressed 
closer  together. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  307 


CHAPTKR  XIII. 

1862— WAR   OF  THE  REBELLION— ON  THE  POTOMAC— BAT- 
TLE OF  THE    IRON-CLADS— LINCOLN   AND    McCLEL- 
LAN— WILLIAMSBURG— INHARMONIOUS  REBELS. 

ONE  of  the  most  important  events  of  the  war 
occurred  on  the  8th  and  9th  of  March,  1862, 
in  Hampton  Roads,  near  Fortress  Monroe.  At  the 
time  of  the  needless,  foolish,  or  criminal  destruction 
of  Gosport  Navy-yard,  the  Government  authorities 
were  constructing  there  the  Merrimack,  a  powerful 
steam  war-frigate.  In  a  partially  wrecked  condition, 
this  vessel  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels.  They 
constructed  on  her  hull  a  slanting  roof  of  heavy 
timbers,  and  lined  the  whole  with  three  layers  of 
inch-and-a-half  iron.  Her  ends  were  built  like  her 
sides.  The  armor  extended  several  feet  below  the 
water,  and  her  bow,  constructed  for  cutting  the 
water,  had  an  iron  ram  or  beak.  There  was  con- 
siderable doubt  and  no  little  uneasiness  felt  in  the 
North  as  to  the  character  and  utility  of  this  untried 
vessel.  The  Administration  was  at  this  time  with 
great  energy  pushing  forward  an  entirely  new  idea  in 
the  form  of  war-vessels.  It  was  a  radical  departure 
from  all  former  methods  of  ship-building,  while  it 
did  not  embrace  all  the  advantages  aimed  at  in  the 
American     system.       It     furnished,     however,     the 


308  OFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

smallest  possible  exposed  surface,  presented  the  best 
conditions  for  the  concentration  of  projectile   force, 
and  its  form  was  found  to  be  best  adapted  to  resist- 
ing or  avoiding  such  force.     But  the  main  idea  of 
the  monitor  was   in  its  revolving  turret.     The  first 
monitor,  built  in  great  haste  as  an  offset  to  the  Me^"- 
rimack,  only  subserved  her  purpose,  and  illustrated 
the  correctness  of  the  general  principle  at  stake.  Her 
iron  armor   above  the  water  was  five  inches    thick, 
with  a  wood  backing  two  feet  and  three  inches  thick. 
Below   the  water  the  iron  mail  was  not   so   strong. 
Her  turret  had  an  inside  diameter  of  twenty  feet, 
was  nine  feet  high,  and  was  made  of  eight  thicknesses 
of  one-inch  iron  plate.     It  carried  two    eleven-inch 
guns  only,  and  they  were  mounted  side  by  side  and 
revolved   with   the  turret.     The  3Ierrimack   carried 
ten  guns,  four  eleven-inch  guns  on  each  side,  and  a 
hundred-pound  rifled  Armstrong  gun  in  each  end,  and 
was  on  the  general  plan  of  the  European  broadside 
frigates,  with  the  addition  of  her  iron  mail  and  sloping 
sides.     The  Government  built  many  other  monitors 
during  the  war  on  the  general  plan  of  the  first  one, 
under  the  direction  of  John  Ericsson,  the  inventor. 
Some  of  them  had  two  turrets,  carrying  several  fif- 
teen-inch guns ;  their  iron  armor  was  almost  doubled ; 
their  rapidity  and  safe  sea-going  qualities  being  ren- 
dered very  satisfactory.     Several  of  them,  like  the 
Puritan,  the  Dictator,  the  Kalamazoo,  and  the  Mian- 
tonomoh  were  then  believed  to  be  the  most  powerful 
war-vessels  in  the  world;  and  it  may  be  added  here 
that  their  construction,  the  mere  experimental  trial 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  309 

of  the  first  one  on  the  9th  of  March,  went  very  far 
toward  settling  the  question  of  non-intervention  in 
England. 

About  noon  on  Saturday,  March  8th,  the  Merri- 
mack, accompanied  by  four  armed  steamers,  came  out 
of  Elizabeth  River,  and  shot  boldly  across  Hampton 
Roads  to  assail  the  Federal  fleet,  consisting  of  the 
Ciimberland,  Congress,  Minnesota,  St.  Latvrence,  and 
several  other  war-vessels.  She  passed  the  Congress 
without  apparently  noticing  her,  and  received  her 
broadside  without  the  slightest  effect.  She  made 
straight  for  the  Cumberland,  and  struck  her  with  her 
iron  beak,  opening  a  vast  hole  in  her  side,  at  the  same 
time  pouring  broadside  after  broadside  into  the  fated 
vessel.  It  was  the  work  of  a  few  moments.  The 
Cumberland  went  down,  carrying  a  hundred  of  her 
dead  and  wounded  with  her,  her  flag  alone  standing 
above  the  water.  She  then  turned  upon  the  Congress, 
and  that  vessel  was  soon  blown  up.  The  Minnesota 
was  now  hard  aground  in  water  supposed  to  be  too 
shallow  for  the  Merrimack,  and  after  firing  a  few  shot 
at  her  at  a  distance  of  a  niile,  and  night  coming  on,  the 
rebel  monster  returned,  escorted  as  she  had  come, 
towards  Norfolk.  This  had  been  a  sad  day  to  the  na- 
tional cause.  With  utter  amazement  the  commanders 
of  the  powerful  wooden  vessels  saw  their  fearful  broad- 
sides, which  would  have  blown  any  other  ship  in  the 
world  out  of  the  water,  one  after  one  slip  harmlessly 
from  the  rebel's  sloping  sides.  To  all  appearances, 
the  whole  American  navy  was  at  the  mercy  of  this 
rebel  monster.     The  cities  of  the  northern  sea-board 


310  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

were  as  chaff  before  her.  If  there  was  no  untried, 
unknown  something  to  cope  with  the  Merrimack,  the 
success  of  the  Rebellion  was  at  once  removed  beyond 
a  doubt.  But  see  what  another  day  brings  forth  ! 
At  nine  o'clock  that  night  Ericsson's  wonderful  little 
monitor,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  John  L. 
Wordon,  reached  Fortress  Monroe,  and  tarrying  there 
but  a  few  moments,  soon  after  midnight  took  its  posi- 
tion by  the  side  of  the  Minnesota,  still  aground  where 
the  Merrimack  had  left  her.  Early  on  Sunday  morning, 
the  9th,  under  Catesby  Jones,  a  new  commander,  the 
rebel  craft  again  made  her  appearance  to  finish  the 
work  she  had  begun  the  day  before.  She  went  up 
the  channel  in  which  the  3Iinnesota  lay,  and  there 
discovered  her  new  diminutive  and  contemptible  foe. 
The  little  monitor  was  soon  pouring  into  her  solid 
shots,  weighing  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  pounds. 
It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  rebel  commander  to  be 
amazed.  The  shot  from  his  crashing  broadsides  slid 
harmlessly  from  the  small  revolving  turret,  and  after 
repeated  attempts  he  gave  up  the  hope  of  running 
the  monitor  down.  The  armor  of  the  Merrimack  now 
began  to  give  way.  She  was  leaking  and  disabled. 
Her  commander  saw  that  she  was  overmatched.  The 
conflict  was  ended.  The  Merrimack  again  made  her 
way  back  to  the  navy-yard ;  and  with  her  defeat 
went  down  another  great  hope  of  the  Rebellion. 
Although  she  made  her  appearance  again  in  the 
Roads,  she  rendered  her  builders  no  further  service, 
and  when  the  rebels  abandoned  Norfolk  in  May,  she 
was   blown   to   pieces.     As    for   the   little    monitor. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  311 

although  she  had  stood  the  trip  from  New  York,  she 
was  foundered  on  her  next  attempt  on  the  open  sea 
off  the  coast  of  Cape  Hatteras,  on  her  way  to 
Beaufort. 

Except  on  the  Potomac,  affairs  had  progressed 
with  general  satisfaction  to  the  national  cause.  And 
although  it  was  now  settled  beyond  a  doubt  that 
mere  localities  and  ordinary  political  considerations, 
so  far  as  the  Government  was  concerned,  could  have 
little  to  do  in  ending  the  Rebellion,  there  arose  a 
constant  cry  for  the  advance  of  McClellan's  army  for 
the  capture  of  Richmond.  Still,  perhaps,  at  that 
late  date  the  fall  of  Richmond  was  regarded  as 
mainly  important  because  of  its  being  the  seat  of  the 
rebel  military  power.  Politically  it  was  certainly  of 
no  importance,  however  erroneously  many  Northern 
people  had  fallen  into  the  idea  that  it  was.  The 
Rebellion  acquired  no  political  importance,  and  its 
military  strength  was  the  only  thing  that  could  ever 
give  it  nny.  To  crush  this  was  now  the  grand  object 
of  the  Government,  and  all  available  means  justified 
by  civilized  (and  I  would  almost  say  Christian) 
warffire  should  have  been  at  once  employed  to 
that  end. 

But  this  lesson  was  not  an  easy  one  for  the 
American  people  to  learn.  Even  General  McClellan, 
who  had  been  bred  a  soldier,  and  had  never  cast  a 
vote  at  the  polls,  seemed  to  be  greatly  disturbed  by 
the  political  circumstances  of  the  war.  While  Gen- 
eral-in-Chief he  was  continually  putting  before  But- 
ler, Buell,  and  others  the  objects  for  which  the  war 


312  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  waged  on  the  part  of  the  Nation,  even  drag- 
ging in  the  drivel  about  Constitutional  means,  and 
going  so  far  as  to  aver  that  the  political  considera- 
tions in  some  parts  led  the  military.  However  true 
this  position  may  have  been  in  1861,  it  was  wholly 
erroneous  and  misleading  at  any  later  date.  The 
work  of  the  Government  was  now  to  crush  the  mili- 
tary power,  and  hence  the  life  out  of  the  Rebellion, 
and  this  thought  mainly  controlled  the  actions  of 
military  men  in  the  West,  and  on  the  Atlantic  and 
Gulf  coast,  as  it  had  such  men  as  General  Butler 
from  the  outset. 

But  General  McClellan  was  not  the  only  one  in 
important  position  who  was  infected  with  this  polit- 
ical incubus,  and  perhaps  he  caught  some  of  his  dif- 
ficulties in  this  way  from  the  President,  who  never 
was  wholly  able  to  free  himself  from  political  con- 
siderations at  any  period  of  the  war,  going  so  far  as 
to  jeopardize  the  cause  of  the  country  in  the  ap- 
pointment of  incompetent  political  generals,  to  say 
nothing  of  other  things.  With  Washington  as  head- 
quarters any  other  general  might  have  been  demoral- 
ized by  the  same  evil  influences.  Some  of  them 
were,  and  that  those  who  finally  came  from  the  West 
to  conquer  the  Rebellion  were  not,  was  owing  to 
several*  facts,  but  mainly  from  their  constant  employ- 
ment in  the  field. 

McClellan  had  become  chronically  inactive,  and 
there  deemed  no  remedy  for  it.  As  his  army  in- 
creased to  an  enormous  size  he  appeared  to  become 
more  helpless.     And  yet  he  seemed  always   on  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  313 

point  of  doing  something  he  never  did  do.  A  mystic 
air  of  this  kind  hung  over  his  steps.  He  said  that 
he  must  crush  the  enemy  at  Manassas  by  the 
25th  of  November,  1861 ;  but  when  that  date  was 
reached  the  grand  army  of  the  Republic  was  quiet 
on  the  Potomac.  At  the  very  outset  he  presented 
to  the  Administration,  when  called  upon  to  do  so,  a 
magnificent  scheme,  and  the  President  thought  and 
hoped  he  might  prove  to  be  the  very  military  genius 
the  crisis  demanded  ;  but  in  practice  this  scheme  was 
fatal  to  his  reputation ;  he  never  carried  it  out.  There 
can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  McClellan  did  at  first 
mean  to  strike  the  Rebellion  rapidly  and  hard,  but 
long  inactivity  furnished  grounds  for  a  different  con- 
struction to  be  placed  upon  his  words.  There  were 
two  ways  of  advancing  toward  Richmond  from  the 
Capital,  by  Manassas  across  the  country,  and  by  the 
Potomac  and  the  narrow  peninsular  routes  among 
the  rivers  with  their  vast  mouths  opening  into  the 
Potomac. 

There  were  advocates  also  of  striking  Rich- 
mond from  the  west  and  by  way  of  North  Caro- 
lina. Although  at  first  General  McClellan  had  no 
other  notion  than  that  entertained  by  General  Scott 
and  the  Administration  of  taking  the  route  of  Mc- 
Dowell by  Bull  Run,  yet  from  this  he  finally  drifted 
away,  and  determined  to  move  his  vast  army  down 
the  Potomac  with  a  view  of  operating  from  Fortress 
Monroe,  Old  Point  Comfort,  or  some  other  desirable 
point.  The  President  opposed  this  plan,  and  no 
great  good  to  the  national  cause  ever  came  out  of  it. 


314  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

But  McClellan  persisted,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  way. 
Early  in  February  the  President  wrote  of  this  seri- 
ous matter : — 

"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,! 
February  3,  1862.        / 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — You  and  I  have  distinct  and  differ- 
ent plans  for  a  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac; 
yours  to  be  done  by  the  Chesapeake,  up  the  Rappahannock 
to  Urbana,  and  across  laud  to  the  terminus  o^the  railroad 
on  the  York  River;  mine  to  move  directly  to  a  point  on 
the  railroad  southwest  of  Manassas. 

If  you  will  give  satisfactory  answers  to  the  following 
questions,  I  shall  gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours : 

''  1.  Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  ex- 
penditure of  time  and  money  than  mine  ? 

"  2.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan 
than  mine? 

"  3.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan 
than  mine? 

"  4.  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this :  that 
it  would  break  no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  communica- 
tions, while  mine  would  ? 

"5.  In  case  of  disaster,  would  not  a  retreat  be  more 
difficult  by  your  plan  than  mine? 

"  Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

"  Major-General  McClellan." 

In  his  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  substan- 
tially  covering  these  questions,  General  McClellan 
did  not  meet  the  difficulty  fully.  The  President  was 
right.  He  was  wrong.  The  failure  of  his  campaign 
proved  this,  and  subsequent  military  criticism  was 
against  him.  Everything  that  McClellan  had  asked 
was  granted,  and  when  he  did  at  last,  after  a  dreary 
winter  of  inactivity,  set  out   early  in  March,  appar- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  315 

ently  with  the  intention  of  moving  on  directly  to 
Richmond,  it  was  only  to  start  anew  some  delusive 
hopes.  The  very  intimation  that  he  was  moving  his 
vast  army  hastened  the  rebel  retreat  from  Manassas 
Junction  to  the  rear  of  the  Rappahannock,  where 
they  could  meet  him  readily,  either  by  the  direct 
route  or  the  Chesapeake. 

From  Fairfax  Court  House,  on  the  13th  of  March, 
he  wrote  to  the  President  that  a  plan  had  been 
concluded  upon  in  a  council  of  his  officers,  and  the 
Secretary  of  War  telegraphed  for  him  to  carry  out 
any  plan  that  had  been  agreed  upon,  without  an 
hour's  delay,  and  not  wait  for  the  President's  con- 
firmation. The  plan  was  the  same  day  brought  ro 
the  President,  and  substantially  approved  at  once. 
Then  began  the  immense  work  of  transferring  the 
army  to  the  peninsular  region  of  Virginia,  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Potomac.  Nearly  four  hundred  vessels 
were  chartered  by  the  War  Department  for  this 
purpose,  and  over  a  month  was  consumed  in  the 
erroneous  task,  at  an  enormous  expense  to  the  coun- 
try, in  hope  that  General  McClellan's  plan  might 
prove  to  be  right,-  and  the  President  not  be  blamed 
for  directing  affairs  for  which  he  had  no  qualifications 
by  education. 

On  the  14th.  of  March,  before  retracing  his  steps 
from  Fairfax,  McClellan  delivered  an  address  to  his 
army,  in  which  he  said  that  he  had  kept  it  inactive 
for  a  long  time,  in  order  to  give  the  death-blow  to 
the  Rebellion.  He  said  the  patience  of  the  army, 
and    its    confidence    in    him,    were    worth    a    dozen 


316  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

victories.  In  tliis  singular,  antediluvian  view  of  this 
matter  a  very  large  per  cent  of  his  anxious  and  dis- 
satisfied countrymen  did  not  share,  however.  They 
were  in  no  mood  to  listen  to  such  Roman  twaddle, 
and  would  have  taken  the  victories  without  the 
patience  or  confidence.  The  General  then  went  on 
to  say  that  the  period  of  inaction  was  ended,  and  he 
was  now  going  to  bring  them  face  to  face  with  the 
rebels.  He  then  said  that  he  loved  the  men  of  his 
army  from  the  depth  of  his  heart,  and  that  they 
would  do  what  he  desired  of  them  when  they  came 
to  meet  a  brave  foe,  and.  God  would  prosper  the 
right.  Here,  ^gain,  were  the  old  promises,  which 
were  but  poorly  fulfilled. 

■  A  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  of  the  grand 
Army  of  the  Potomac  were  transported  to  Fortress 
Monroe.  But  General  McClellan  at  once  began 
the  work  of  undesignedly  overestimating  the  rebel 
strength  before  him,  and  complaining  of  the  troops 
the  President  had  been  forced  to  withhold,  of  the 
want  of  proper  support,  supplies,  and  the  old  tardy 
policy  was  naturally  resumed.  This  brought  from 
the  President  several  letters,  among  which  was  the 
following  cutting  review  of  the  case : — 

"  Washington,  April  9,  1862. 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — Your  dispatches,  complaining  that 
you  are  not  properly  sustained,  while  they  do  not  offend 
me,  do  pain  me  very  much. 

"Blenker's  division  was  withdrawn  from  you  before 
you  left  here,  and  you  know  the  pressure  under  which  I 
did  it,  and,  as  I  thought,  acquiesced  in  it — certainly  not 
without  reluctance. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  317 

"After  you  left  I  ascertained  that  less  than  twenty 
thousand  unorganized  men,  without  a  single  field-battery, 
were  all  you  designed  to  be  left  for  the  defense  of  Wash- 
ington and  Manassas  Junction,  and  part  of  this  even  was 
to  go  to  General  Hooker's  old  position.  General  Banks's 
corps,  once  designed  for  Manassas  Junction,  was  diverted 
and  tied  up  on  the  line  of  Winchester  and  Strasburg,  and 
could  not  leave  it  without  again  exposing  the  Upper  Poto- 
mac and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  This  presented, 
or  would  present,  when  McDowell  and  Sumner  should  be 
gone,  a  great  temptation  to  the  enemy  to  turn  back  from 
the  Rappahannock  and  sack  Washington.  My  implicit 
order  that  Washington  should,  by  the  judgment  of  all  the 
commanders  of  army  corps,  be  left  entirely  secure,  had 
been  neglected.  It  was  precisely  this  that  drove  me  to 
detain  McDowell. 

"  I  do  not  forget  that  I  was  satisfied  with  your  arrange- 
ment to  leave  Banks  at  Manassas  Junction ;  but  when  that 
arrangement  was  broken  up,  and  nothing  was  substituted 
for  it,  of  course  I  was  constrained  to  substitute  something 
for  it  myself  And  allow  me  to  ask:  Do  you  really  think 
I  should  permit  the  line  from  Richmond,  via  Manassas 
Junction  to  this  city,  to  be  entirely  open,  except  what 
resistance  could  be  presented  by  less  than  twenty  thousand 
unorganized  troops?  This  is  a  question  which  the  country 
will  not  allow  me  to  evade. 

"  There  is  a  curious  mystery  about  the  number  of  troops 
now  with  you.  When  I  telegraphed  you  on  the  6th,  saying 
you  had  over  a  hundred  thousand  with  you,  I  had  just 
obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  War  a  statement  taken,  as 
he  said,  from  your  own  returns,  making  one  hundred  and 
eight  thousand  then  with  you  and  en  route  to  you.  You 
now  say  you  will  have  but  eighty-five  thousand  when  all 
en  route  to  you  shall  have  reached  you.  How  can  the 
discrepancy  of  twenty-three  thousand  be  accounted  for? 

"As  to  General  Wool's   command,   I    understand    it  is 


318  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

doing  for  you  precisely  what  a  like  number  of  your  own 
would  have  to  do  if  that  command  was  away. 

"  I  suppose  the  whole  force  which  has  gone  forward  for 
you  is  with  you  by  this  time.  And,  if  so,  I  tiiink  it  is  the 
precise  time  for  you  to  strike  a  blow.  By  delay  the  enemy 
will  relatively  gain  upon  you;  that  is,  he  will  gain  faster 
by  fortifications  and  re-enforcements  than  you  can  by  re- 
enforcements  alone.  And,  once  more,  let  me  tell  you,  it  is 
indispensable  to  you  to  strike  a  blow.  I  am  powerless  to 
help  this.  You  will  do  me  the  justice  to  remember  I  always 
insisted  that  going  doicn  the  bay  in  search  of  a  field,  instead 
of  fighting  at  or  near  Manassas,  was  only  shifting,  and  not 
surmounting,  a  difiUculty ;  that  we  would  find  the  same  enemy, 
and  the  same  or  equal  intrenchments,  at  either  place.  The 
country  will  not  fail  to  note,  is  now  noting,  that  the  present 
hesitation  to  move  upon  an  intrenched  enemy  is  but  the  story 
of  3Ianassas  repeated. 

"  I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  have  never  written  you  or 
spoken  to  you  in  greater  kindness  of  feeling  than  now,  nor 
with  a  fuller  purpose  to  sustain  you,  so  far  as,  in  my  most 
anxious  judgment,  I  consistently  can.     Bid  you  must  act. 
"Yours,  very  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

"  Major-General  McClellan." 

The  President  here  touches  the  key-note  to  the 
weakness  of  McClellan's  plan,  to  which  he  wrongly- 
submitted,  and  for  which,  in  a  degree,  he  must  be 
held  responsible. 

A  few  thousand  men,  not  over  ten,  under  John 
B.  Magruder,  were  at  Yorktown,  and  guarding  the 
line,  thirteen  miles  long,  across  the  peninsula  formed 
by  the  York  and  James  Bivers  with  the  Chesapeake. 
Before  these  McClellan  took  his  position,  and  to  the 
utter  amazement  of  the  rebel  general  began  to  intrench 
and  fortify  when  he  expected  him  to  move  up  with 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  319 

his  army  of  over  a  hundred  thousand  effective  men, 
and  sweep  everything  before  him.  In  all  this  penin- 
sular campaign  McClellan  allowed  himself  to  be; 
deluded  into  the  idea  that  the  whole  rebel  strength 
was  before  him,  and  that  he  was  not  able  to  cope 
with  it.  McClellan  sent  to  Washington  for  siege-guns. 
The  President,  in  great  alarm,  sent  back: — 

"  Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  \ 

May  1,  1862.       j 

"  Ma jor-General  McClellan, — Your  call  for  Par- 

rott  guns  from  Washington  alarms  me,  chiefly  because  it 

argues  indefinite  procrastination.     Is  anything  to  be  done? 

"A.  Lincoln." 

Only  two  days  after  this  the  rebels  slunk  away, 
boasting  of  how  five  thousand  men  had  kept  at  bay 
this  splendid  army,  with  which  its  General  had  de- 
clared he  was  going  to  give  the  Rebellion  its  death- 
blow. But  about  the  five  thousand  men,  of  course 
Magruder  lied,  a  thing  it  was  easy  for  him  to  do,  as 
it  seemed  easy  for  everybody  to  do  in  those  days. 
Everything  appeared  to  take  the  varying  standard  of 
the  "Confederate"  currency. 

General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  says  that  Magruder 
had  thirteen  thousand  men,  and  of  the  objects  of 
making  the  pretension  before  McClellan  at  Yorktown, 
he  writes : — 

"General  Magruder  had  estimated  the  importance  of 
at  least  delaying  the  invaders  until  an  army  capable  of 
coping  with  them  could  be  formed;  and  opposed  them 
with  about  a  tenth  of  their  number,  on  a  line  of  which 
Yorktown,  intrenched,  made  the  left  flank.     This  boldness 


320  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

imposed  upon  the  Federal  General,  and  made  him  halt  to 
besiege,  instead  of  assailing  the  Confederate  position.  This 
resolute  and  judicious  course  on  the  part  of  General 
Magruder  was  of  incalculable  value.  It  saved  Richmond, 
and  gave  the  Confederate  government  time  to  swell  that 
officer's  handful  to  an  army." 

Of  course,  there  was   no  need  of  McClellan's  de- 
lay at  Yorktown.     He    needed   no  siege-guns,  no  in- 
trenchments.     Nor  was  there  then  anything  to  pre- 
vent his  marching  directly  to  Richmond.     But  Gen- 
eral Johnston  himself,  in  his  account  of  Fair  Oaks  or 
Seven  Pines,  fell  into  the  common  habit  of  overesti- 
mating the   Federal   forces  and  underestimating  the 
number  of  his  own.     There  were  three  ways  of  esti- 
mating  troops :    from    the    regimental    and    brigade 
rolls;    from    the    numbers    actually  engaged    on    the 
field  by  actual  count  with  the  usual  per  cent  off  for 
detached  duties  of  various   kinds;    and  from  the  ex- 
aggerated vision,  passion,  w^him,  or  disposition  of  the 
occasion.     The  latter  of  these  was   most  frequently 
resorted  to,  and  the   second   seldom  or  never.     This 
diversity  of  ways    used    in    making   estimates   gave 
rise  to  the  numerous  unintentional  and  designed  dis- 
crepancies everywhere  found  in  records  and  writings 
of  the    war.     The   armies   were   never   so   large   on 
either  side  in  the  field  as  they  were  on  paper.     From 
sixty-five  to  eighty  per  cent  was  a  fair  estimate  of 
the  number  on  the  pay-roll  present  for  active  service 
on   the    field.     And   not   unfrequently  one-half  of  an 
army,  even  a  fresh  one,  was  present  to  fight  the  foe. 
Only    on   the    muster-rolls    was    there    ever  such  an 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  321 

army  in  the  field  as  the  people  supposed.  On  the 
rebel  side,  perhaps,  the  cutting  on  the  pay-roll  was 
even  greater  than  on  the  side  of  the  Government. 
And  where  were  all  of  these  men,  many  of  whom 
during  the  entire  war  never  "saw  service"  in  the 
field  with  their  regiments? 

They  were  cooks,  teamsters,  nurses,  helpers  or 
servants,  choppers  and  diggers ;  guarders  of  prisoners, 
stations,  depots,  prisons,  vast  lines  of  railroads,  rivers, 
lines  of  communications;  messengers,  scouts,  spies; 
in  the  captured  posts  on  the  sea-coast;  provost  guards, 
political  escorts;  general  loafers  around  the  country, 
and  wounded  and  sick.  Thus  it  was  that  a  hundred 
thousand  men  on  the  pay-rolls  became  fifty  thousand 
on  the  field  of  battle, 

I  can  hardly  treat  with  the  contempt  of  silence 
this  announcement  of  the  event  and  so  forth  from 
General  McClellan : — 

"  Head-quarters  Army  of  the  Potomac,  1 

May  4,  9.  A.  M.         / 

"To  the  Hon.  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War: — 

"  We  have  the  ramparts.  Have  guns,  ammunition, 
camp  equipage,  etc.  We  hold  the  entire  line  of  his 
works,  which  the  engineers  report  as  being  very  strong. 
I  have  thrown  all  piy  cavalry  and  horse-artillery  in  pur- 
suit, supported  by  infantry.  I  move  Franklin's  division, 
and  as  much  more  as  I  can  transport  by  water,  up  to 
West  Point  to-day.  No  time  shall  be  lost.  The  gun- 
boats have  gone  up  York  River.  I  omitted  to  state  that 
Gloucester  is  also  in  our  possession.  I  shall  push  the 
enemy  to  the  wall. 

"  G.  B.  McClellan,  Major-General." 

21— Q 


322  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

On  the  same  day  he  again  wrote : — 

"Our  cavalry  and  horse-artillery  came  up  with  the 
enemy's  rear-guard  in  their  intrenchments  about  two 
miles  this  side  of  Williamsburg.  A  brisk  fight  ensued. 
Just  as  my  aid  left,  General  Smith's  division  of  infantry 
arrived  on  the  ground,  and  I  presume  he  carried  his 
works,  though  I  have  not  yet  heard. 

"  The  enemy's  rear  is  strong,  but  I  have  force  enough 
up  there  to  answer  all  purposes. 

"  We  have  thus  far  seventy-one  heavy  guns,  large 
amounts  of  tents,  ammunition,  etc.  All  along  the  lines 
their  works  prove  to  have  been  most  formidable,  and  I 
am  now  fully  satisfied  ,of  the  correctness  of  the  course  I 
have  pursued. 

"The  success  is  brilliant,  and  you  may  rest  assured  its 
effects  will  be  of  the  greatest  importance.  There  shall  be 
no  delay  in  following  up  the  enemy.  The  rebels  have 
been  guilty  of  the  most  murderous  and  barbarous  conduct 
in  placing  torpedoes  within  the  abandoned  works,  near 
Mill  Springs,  near  the  flag-staffs,  magazines,  telegraph 
offices,  in  carpet-bags,  barrels  of  flour,  etc. 

"  Fortunately  we  have  not  lost  many  men  in  this 
manner.  Some  four  or  five  have  been  killed  and  a  dozen 
wounded.  I  shall  make  the  prisoners  remove  them  at 
their  own  peril." 

Then  followed  this  letter  to  Mr.  Stanton : — 

"  Bivouac  in  Front  of  Williamsburg,  ) 
"  May,  5,  1862,  10  o'clock  P.  M.         j 

"  Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War : — 

"After  arranging  for  movements  up  York  River,  I 
was  urgently  sent  for  here.  I  find  General  Joe  Johnston 
in  front  of  me  in  strong  force,  probably  greater  a  good 
deal  than  my  own. 

"  General   Hancock   has  taken   two   redoubts  and  re- 


I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  323 

pulsed  Early's  rebel  brigade,  by  a  real  charge  with  the 
bayonet,  taking  one  colonel  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  other 
prisoners,  and  killing  at  least  two  colonels  and  many  pri- 
vates.    His  conduct  was  brilliant  in  the  extreme. 

"I  do  not  know  our  exact  loss,  but  fear  that  General 
Hooker  has  lost  considerably  on  our  left. 

"I  learn  from  the  prisoners  taken  that  the  rebels  in- 
tend to  dispute  every  step  to  Richmond. 

"  I  shall  run  the  risk  of  at  least  holding  them  in  check 
here,  while  I  resume  the  original  plan. 

"My  entire  force  is  undoubtedly  inferior  to  that  of  the 
rebels,  who  will  fight  well;  but  I  will  do  all  I  can  with 
the  force  at  my  disposal. 

"G.  B.  McClellan,  Major-General  Commanding." 

J,  E.  Johnston's  army  had  indeed  come  up,  and 
of  this  day's  work  General  Hooker  wrote :  "  History 
will  not  be  believed  when  it  is  told  that  the  noble 
officers  and  men  of  my  division  were  permitted  to 
carry  on  this  unequjil  struggle  from  morning  until 
night,  unaided,  in  the  presence  of  more  than  thirty 
thousand  of  their  comrades  with  arms  in  their  hands; 
nevertheless,  it  is  true."  Hooker's  loss  was  over 
two  thousand  two  hundred,  and  nearly  five  hundred 
of  that  number  were  killed. 

But  General  McClellan  was  mistaken  about  Han- 
cock's bayonet  charge ;  and,  more  than  this,  on  the 
morning  of  the  6th  it  was  discovered  that  the 
rebels  had  left  Williamsburg  without  waiting  to  dis- 
pute every  inch  of  ground  with  a  force  the  General 
had  in  his  usual  style  represented  to  the  authori- 
ties at  Washington  to  be  much  superior  to  his  own. 

The  rebel  commander,  Johnston,  makes  no  men- 


324  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

tion  of  Hancock's  brilliant  "  real "  bayonet  charge, 
and  says : — 

"As  the  Federal  army,  except  Franklin's  division,  had 
marched  but  nine  miles  to  the  fiekl  the  day  before,  by  two 
roads,  one  can  not  understand  why  four,  or  even  six  divis- 
ions, if  necessary,  were  not  brought  into  action.  The 
sraalhiess  of  the  force  engaged  on  this  occasion  greatly 
strengthened  my  suspicion  that  the  army  itself  was  mov- 
ing up  York  River  in  transports." 

This  little  soldier  squirms  around  among  his 
words  a  great  deal  in  attempting  to  show  that  he 
was  not  defeated  at  Williamsburg,  and  the  "  daisy  "- 
like  reports  of  General  McClellan  were  not  justified 
in  view  of  the  great  losses  under  Hooker. 

The  rebels  now  abandoned  Norfolk,  blew  up  the 
Merrimack  (^Merrimac)  or  Virginia,  and  drew  their 
forces  towards  Richmond.  On  the  fifteenth  day  of 
May  the  Federal  war-steamers  went  up  James  River 
to  Fort  Darling,  eight  miles  below  Richmond.  In 
the  meantime  McClellan  slowly  worked  his  way  to 
the  Chickahominy  in  a  somewhat  circuitous  route, 
with  a  view  of  keeping  up  his  connection  with  York 
River,  and  by  the  25th  a  part  of  his  army  had  crossed 
to  the  south  side  of  that  stream. 

Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  had  now  arrived  with 
his  army  from  Mannssas  and  the  Rappahannock,  took 
command  of  the  operations  to  resist  the  advance  of 
the  Federals.  He  at  once  proposed  to  Jefferson 
Davis  the  propriety  of  gathering  in  the  shortest  pos- 
sible time  from  every  available  source  a  force  superior 
to   McClellan's,  and  with  it  defeat  and   destroy  his 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  325 

great  army  in  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy,  and 
bv  the  one  grand  stroke  establish  the  cause  of  the 
Rebellion. 

By  this  time  Mr.  Davis  had  intrusted  the  general 
supervision  of  military  matters  to  Robert  E.  Lee,  and 
neither  of  them  was  ready  at  that  time  to  fall  in  with 
Johnston's  proposition,  although  he  put  it  before  them 
at  every  opportunity.  After  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks 
and  the  removal  of  Johnston  to  the  West,  they  did, 
however,  of  necessity,  adopt  his  plan. 

Notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  some  unreliable 
Southern  writers  then,  and  even  at  this  day,  to  estab- 
lish the  statement  as  a  truth  that  the  greatest  har- 
mony and  unanimity  of  sentiment  existed  among  the 
Southern  leaders,  nothing  could  have  been  more  com- 
pletely at  variance  with  the  facts  in  the  case.  From 
the  very  outset  they  begfin  to  quarrel  on  points  of 
policy,  but  more  frequently  about  personal  matters, 
and  as  time  passed  their  differences  became  more  in- 
tense and  irreconcihible.  Jefferson  Davis's  two  large 
volumes  are,  to  a  great  extent,  taken  up  with  an 
effort  to  set  himself  right  against  Governor  Brown, 
of  Georgia,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  G.  T.  Beauregard, 
and  others,  besides  the  general  public.  There  was 
no  harmony  among  the  rebel  leaders,  and  there  came 
to  be  but  one  authority  in  the  affairs  of  the  Rebell- 
ion. That  was  the  will  of  Jefferson  Davis,  and  the 
few  to  whom  he  intrusted  the  execution  of  his  will, 
and  whom  he  especially  favored  in  so  doing. 

General  Johnston's  notion  about  terminating  the 
v^ar  in   favor   of  the   Rebellion   by   the    utter   ruin 


326  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  McClellan's  army  exhibits  how  greatly  mistaken 
at  that  late  date  even  such  men  were  as  to  the  re- 
sources and  spirit  of  the  North.  If  McCleUan  and 
his  grand  army  had  been  wholly  annihilated  in  a 
day,  better  generals  and  more  powerful  armies  would 
have  sprung  up  in  a  day  to  take  their  places.  Gen- 
eral Johnston  had  at  that  period  certainly  one  quality 
which  a  good  soldier  never  possesses — a  disposition 
to  have  his  own  v^ay  and  disobey  the  orders  of  those 
who,  in  the  organized  Rebellion,  were  his  superiors. 
This  trait  he  began  to  show  at  Harper's  Ferry.  He 
could  not  join  Beauregard  at  Manassas  until  he  knew 
who  would  be  superior.  After  the  battle  of  Manas- 
sas he  set  up  a  constant  stream  of  complaints  towards 
Richmond  ;  accused  the  Secretary  of  War,  Benjamin, 
who  was  an  exceedingly  officious  and  incompetent 
person,  of  interfering  with  affairs  that  disturbed  him. 
He  says  himself  that  he  was  only  reconciled  some- 
what to  the  necessity  of  obeying  Mr.  Davis's  order 
by  reflecting  that  his  proposed  plan  would  eventually 
have  to  be  adopted.  Davis  on  his  part  mistrusted 
that  Johnston  meant  to  give  up  Richmond,  which  he 
knew  could  only  be  defended  at  a  distance,  and 
makes  a  great  parade  of  what  he  conceived  to  be 
the  impossibility  of  getting  anything  definite  out  of 
-Johnston  as  to  his  intentions,  if  he  had  any,  before 
the  battle  of  Seven  Pines  or  Fair  Oaks.  Even  Stone- 
wall Jackson,  the  preacher,  was  insulted  about  his 
command  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  wanted  to 
give  up  his  commission.  Henry  A.  Wise  and  John 
B.    Floyd   quarreled   about   place.     Beauregard  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  327 

Davis  were  always  in  trouble,  from  which  they  were 
not  relieved  when  the  former  was  allowed  by  the 
latter  to  retire  on  sick  leave.  More  than  everything 
else  the  Rebellion  lacked  the  element  of  harmony. 
Many,  perhaps  most,  of  its  leaders,  among  whom 
was  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  seemed  to  place  their  own 
desires  and  personal  fame  above  the  success  'of  the 
cause  for  which  they  fought. 


328  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTKR  XIV. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— REBEL  SUCCESSES  IN  THE 
SHENANDOAH. VALLEY— McCLELLAN  ON  THE  "PENIN- 
SULA"—SEVEN  PINES— THE  CHICKAHOMINY— SEVEN 
DAYS'  BATTLE. 

EARLY  in  March  Stonewall  Jackson  and  Richard 
S.  Ewell,  by  instructions  from  Richmond,  began 
a  series  of  active  operations  in  the  Shenandoah  Val- 
ley, with  a  view  of  diverting  McDowell  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock from  his  design  of  re-enforcing  McClellan. 
After  some  reverses  they  were  finally  successful  in 
gaining  a  decided  advantage  over  General  R.  H. 
Milroy  at  a  place  called  McDowell,  on  the  8th  of 
May,  and  on  Ihe  25th  of  the  same  month,  in  defeat- 
ing General  N.  P.  Banks  at  Winchester,  and  forcing 
him  to  retreat  from  the  State  at  Harper's  Ferry. 
These  untoward  events  threw  the  authorities  at 
Washington  into  a  state  of  excitement  not  justified 
by  the  ability  or  intentions  of  the  rebels,  who  cer- 
tainly had  no  hope  of  reaching  the  Capital.  But  the 
scare  at  Washington  and  throughout  the  North  was. 
all  the  same,  and  unfortunately  resulted  in  the  Pres- 
ident's countermanding  the  order  to  McDowell  to 
re-enforce  McClellan.  This,  of  course,  greatly  dis- 
tressed the  latter,  who  never  ceased  to  direct  at  the 
President  and  Secretary  of  War  his  battery  of  com- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  329 

plaints.  One  of  the  most  obvious  troubles  in  the 
imagination  of  McCIellan  was  his  strong  desire  to 
have  in  his  army  only  officers  in  perfect  ngreement 
with  him  personally  and  politically,  as  well  as  in  a 
military  sense.  If  he  had  ever  been  in  favor  of  or- 
ganizing the  army  into  corps,  he  showed  great  aver- 
sion to  this  arrangement  soon  after  his  arrival  on  the 
"Peninsula."  On  the  9th  of  May,  in  a  very  sharp 
letter  to  Mr.  Stanton,  he  asserted  that  a  thousand 
lives  were  lost  at  Williamsburg  because  of  this  divis- 
ion into  corps;  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  such  a  state  of  affairs;  that  he  must 
have  permission  to  reorganize  the  corps;  and  must  be 
allowed  to  drop  incompetent  corps  commanders  at  once. 
In  reply  to  his  dispatch  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  this 
plain  and  characteristic  letter  from  Fortress  Monroe, 
where  he  had  gone  to  see  how  matters  were  pro- 
gressing : — 

"Head-quarters  Department  of  Virginia,! 
"  Fort  Monroe,  Va.,  May  9,  1862.         / 

"Major-General  McClellan  : — 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — I  have  just  assisted  the  Secretary 
of  War  in  framing  the  part  of  a  dispatch  to  you  relating 
to  army  corps,  which  dispatch,  of  course,  will  have  reached 
you  long  before  this  will.  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  to 
you  privately  on  this  subject.  I  ordered  the  army  corps 
organization  not  only  on  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the 
twelve  generals  whom  you  had  selected  and  assigned  as 
generals  of  divisions,  but  also  on  the  unanimous  opinion 
of  every  military  man  I  could  get  an  opinion  from,  and 
every  modern  military  book,  yourself  only  excepted.  Of 
course,  I  did  not  on  my  own  judgment  pretend  to  under- 
stand tlie  subject.     I  now  think  it  indispensable  for  you 


330  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  know  how  your  struggle  against  it  is  received  in  quar- 
ters which  we  can  not  entirely  disregard.  It  is  looked 
upon  as  merely  an  effort  to  pamper  one  or  two  pets,  and 
to  persecute  and  degrade  their  supposed  rivals.  I  have 
had  no  word  from  Sumner,  Heintzelman,  or  Keyes — the 
commanders  of  these  corps  are,  of  course,  the  three  highest 
officers  with  you;  but  I  am  constantly  told  that  you  have 
no  consultation  or  communication  with  them;  that  you 
consult  and  communicate  with  nobody  but  General  Fitz 
John  Porter,  and,  perhaps,  General  Franklin.  I  do  not 
say  these  complaints  are  true  or  just;  but  at  all  events,  it 
is  proper  you  should  know  of  their  existence.  Do  the 
commanders  of  corps  disobey  your  orders  in  any  thing? 

"  When  you  relieved  General  Hamilton  of  his  com- 
mand, the  other  day,  you  thereby  lost  the  confidence  of  at 
least  one  of  your  best  friends  in  the  Senate.  And  here 
let  me  say,  not  as  applicable  to  you  personally,  that  Sen- 
ators and  Representatives  speak  of  me  in  their  places  as 
they  please  without  question,  and  that  officers  of  the  army 
must  cease  addressing  insulting  letters  to  them  for  taking 
no  greater  liberty  with  them. 

"But  to  return.  Are  you  strong  enough — are  you 
strong  enough  even  with  my  help — to  set  your  foot  upon 
the  necks  of  Sumner,  Heintzelman,  and  Keyes  all  at  once? 
This  is  a  practical  and  very  serious  question  to  you. 

"The  success  of  your  army  and  the  cause  of  the  coun- 
try are  the  same,  aud  of  course  I  only  desire  tlfe  good  of 
the  cause.  Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln." 

Nothing  could'  check  General  INIcClellan's  com- 
plaints, or  his  disposition  to  overestimate  on  one  side 
or  the  other.  On  the  26th  of  May  he  wrote  to  the 
President : — 

"  Have  arranged  to  carry  out  your  last  orders.  We 
are  quietly  closing  in  upon  the  enemy,  preparxitory  to  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  331 

last  struggle.  Situated  as  I  am,  I  feel  forced  to  take  every 
possible  precaution  against  disaster,  and  to  secure  my 
flanks  against  the  probably  superior  force  in  front  of  me. 
My  arrangements  for  to-morrow  are  very  important,  and, 
if  successful,  will  leave  me  free  to  strike  on  the  return  of 
the  force  detached." 

Later  on,  the  same  day,  in  his  dispatch  concern- 
ing the  detachment  sent  out,  he  gushingly  says : — 

"Porter's  action  of  yesterday  was  truly  a  glorious  vic- 
tory ;  too  much  credit  can  not  be  given  to  his  magnificent 
division  and  its  accomi)lished  leader.  The  rout  of  the 
rebels  was  complete;  not  a  defeat,  but  a  complete  rout." 

» 

The  President  had  often  been  misled  in  this  way, 
and  the  following  from  his  communication  to  McClel- 
lan,  on  the  28th  of  May,  shows  what  stress  he  was 
beginning  to  place  upon  the  General's  glowing  reports, 
promises,  and  pretensions  : — 

"  I  am  very  glad  of  General  F.  J.  Porter's  victory ; 
still,  if  it  was  a  total  rout  of  the  enemy,  I  am  puzzled  to 
know  why  the  Richmond  and  Fredericksburg  Railroad 
was  not  seized  again,  as  you  say  you  have  all  the  railroads 
but  the  Richmond  and  Fredericksburg.  I  am  puzzled  to 
see  how,  lacking  that,  you  can  have  any,  except  the  scrap 
from  Richmond  to  West  Point.  The  scrap  of  the  Virginia 
Central,  from  Richmond  to  Hanover  Junction,  without 
more,  is  simply  nothing.  That  the  whole  of  the  enemy  is 
concentrating  on  Richmond,  I  think,  can  not  be  certainly 
known  to  you  or  me.  Saxton,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  informs 
us  that  large  forces,  supposed  to  be  Jackson's  and  Ewell's, 
forced  his  advance  from  Charlestown  to-day.  General 
King  telegraphs  us  from  Fredericksburg  that  contrabands 
give  certain  information  that  fifteen  thousand  left  Hanover 


332  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Junction  Monday  morning  to  re-enforce  Jackson.  I  am 
painfully  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the  struggle 
before  you,  and  shall  aid  you  all  I  can  consistently  with 
my  view  of  due  regard  to  all  points." 

On  reaching  the  Chickahominy  General  McClel- 
lan's  first  business  was  to  rebuild  the  bridges,  which 
had  been  destroyed  by  the  rebels  in  their  retreat. 
About  thirty  thousand  of  his  troops  were  at  once 
passed  over  to  the  south  side  of  the  stream,  the  right 
and  left  extremes  of  the  army  now  being  several 
miles  apart.  This  very  treacherous  river,  or  creek, 
with  extensive  swamps  on  both  sides  of  it,  now  cut 
the  Federal  army  in  two,  with  the  weaker  part  on 
the  side  next  the  rebel  troops,  and  wholly  beyond 
the  chance  of  succor  in  case  of  a  sudden  rise  of  water. 

Johnston  now  seeing  his  opportunity,  a  great  rain 
having  fallen  on  the  night  of  the  30th  of  May,  pre- 
pared to  fall  upon  what  he  seemed  to  think  was 
only  Keyes's  Corps  of  the  Federal  army  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Chickahominy.  Although  his  arrange- 
ments appeared  to  be  accurate  enough  for  his  purpose, 
they  were  not  successfully  carried  out,  and  not  until 
toward  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  was  he  ready  to 
begin  the  attack.  General  Silas  Casey,  with  about 
five  thousand  of  Keyes's  Corps,  was  in  advance  at 
Fair  Oaks,  and  the  other  division  was  some  distance 
in  the  rear,  at  the  point  called  "  Seven  Pines,"  under 
General  Darius  M.  Couch.  Still  to  the  rear  of  these 
was  the  corps  of  General  Heintzelman.  Although, 
to  some  extent,  protected  by  intrenchments  and  abatis, 
Casey's   weak    division   was  partially  surprised,  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  333 

soon  gave  way,  leaving  their  guns  and  camp  equipage 
behind  them,  and  rushing  in  much  disorder  to  the 
rear  of  Couch,  whose  division  shared  the  same  fate, 
but  after  a  stubborn  resistance.  Longstreet  and 
D.  H.  Hill  had,  up  to  this  time,  been  engaged  on  the 
rebel  side.  Gustavus  W.  Smith,  accompanied  by 
Johnston,  came  in  as  night  approached,  in  an  attempt 
to  cut  the  Federals  from  their  river  communications. 
A  considerable  part  of  Heintzehnan's  Corps  had  come 
to  the  aid  of  Couch.  But  an  event  not  in  the  rebel 
General's  calculations  now  occurred.  The  river  had 
been  rising  all  day,  and  the  chances  were  favorable 
to  the  complete  realization  of  his  hopes,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Federal  force  on  the  south  of  the  Chick- 
ahominy.  McClellan,  who  was  sick  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  was  not  ignorant  of  the  dangerous 
position  into  which  he  had  allowed  his  army  to  fall, 
and  soon  after  the  battle  began  ordered  Sumner  to 
move  across  with  his  corps.  An  hour  before  night 
he  succeeded  in  getting  across  the  already  partially 
floating  bridge  General  John  Sedgwick's  division, 
and,  subsequently,  the  other  division,  commanded  by 
General  I.  B.  Richardson,  crossed  over  with  great 
difficulty.  Guided  by  the  sound  of  the  battle,  Sum- 
ner pushed  forward  with  Sedgwick's  division  through 
the  swamps  and  woods,  and,  with  great  fury,  fell 
upon  the  flank  of  the  rebel  force  moving  to  gain  the 
rear  of  the  discomfited  Union  troops  at  Bottom's 
Bridge.  Here  the  rebels  were  repulsed  and  driven 
back  with  heavy  loss,  when  night  closed  upon  the 
contest. 


334  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

At  seven  o'clock  General  Johnston  was  wounded 
and  carried  from  the  field,  Gustavus  W.  Smith  suc- 
ceeding to  the  temporary  command  of  the  rebel  army. 
Jefferson  Davis  and  General  Lee  had,  during  the  last 
hour  or  two,  been  on  the  field,  the  former  directing 
some  of  the  movements.  The  next  morning  the 
battle  was  renewed,  but  not  with  the  former  vigor 
and  resolution  on  the  part  of  the  rebels,  and  by  noon 
they  were  repulsed  and  driven  from  the  field.  They 
had  failed  under  very  fortunate  circumstances. 

The  battle  of  Seven  Pines,  or  Fair  Oaks,  was 
ended.  At  this  juncture  Robert  E.  Lee  took  com- 
mand of  the  rebel  army  in  Virginia,  and  began  his 
history  with  it. 

In  the  three  corps,  Keyes's,  Heintzelman's,  and 
Sumner's,  engaged  in  the  two  days'  fighting.  General 
McClelbin  reported  a  total  loss  of  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  thirty-nine  men,  eight  hundred  and 
ninety  having  been  killed,  and  thirty-two  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  being  wounded.  The  rebel  loss, 
according  to  the  report  of  General  Johnston,  was 
forty-two  hundred  and  thirty-three. 

Two  or  three  days  after  this  battle  a  considerable 
force  of  the  Union  troops  advanced  to  within  four 
miles  of  Richmond.  It  was  well  known  some  time 
subsequently  that  if  McClellan  had  pushed  forward 
his  magnificent  army,  which  he  foolishly  and  boyishly 
"almost  believed  invincible,"  even  after  the  "seven 
days'  battles,"  before  Lee  had  received  re-enforce- 
ments and  reorganized  the  rebel  forces,  he  could  have 
taken  Richmond,  and  if  not  simplified  the  conflict  for 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  335 

the  overthrow  of  the  Ptebellion,  at  least  ended  the 
everlasting  turmoil  about  Richmond. 

While  it  is,  perhaps,  no  cause  of  complaint  or 
censure  of  McClellnn  that  he  did  not  know  this  rebel 
military  and  political  center  was  at  his  mercy,  it  is 
not  so  clear  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  find  it 
out.  It  was  not  an  omnipotent  task.  For  what  had 
he  been  permitted  to  undertake  the  "peninsular  cam- 
paign?" What  had  been  his  promises?  What  were 
they  then,  day  by  day,  as  the  army  lay  there  in  i(ile- 
ness,  and  fretting  to  be  led  forward  to  the  thing 
which  seemed  to  be  in  its  grasp? 

It  was  the  24th  or  25th  of  June  before  he  dis- 
covered that  StonewallJackson  was  coming  stealthily 
from  the  Shenandoah,  and  then,  in  alarm,  he  began 
to  besiege  Washington  with  his  complaints  and  calls 
for  re-enforcements,  averring  that  two  hundred  thou- 
sand rebels  were  concentrating  to  overwhelm  him. 
Only  a  few  days  previously  he  actually  telegraphed 
the  President  that  troops  were  leaving  Richmond  to 
re-enforce  Jackson  in  the  valley,  so  completely  was 
he  in  the  dark  as  to  their  true  movements.  While 
things  seemed  to  be  so  favorable  for  rest  and  quiet 
on  the  Chickahominy,  he  even  proposed  to  the  Pres- 
ident that  he  should  be  allowed  to  present  to  him, 
in  detail,  his  views  on  the  conduct  of  the  war  and 
the  politics  of  the  country.  To  this  unsoldier-like 
and  officious  demand  the  President  replied : — 

"  Washington,  June  21,  1862,  6  P.  M. 
"Your   dispatch    of  yesterday,  2  P.  M.,  was   received 
this  morning.     If  it  would   not  divert  too  much  of  your 


336  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

time  and  attention  from  the  army  under  your  immediate 
command,  I  would  be  glad  to  have  your  views  as  to  the 
present  state  of  military  affairs  throughout  the  whole 
country,  as  you  say  you  would  be  glad  to  give  them.  I 
would  rather  it  should  be  by  letter  than  by  telegraph, 
because  of  the  better  chance  of  secrecy.  As  to  the  num- 
bers and  positions  of  the  troops^  not  under  your  command, 
in  Virginia  and  elsewhere,  even  if  I  could  do  it  with  ac- 
curacy, which  I  can  not,  I  would  rather  not  transmit 
either  by  lelegraph  or  letter,  because  of  the  chances  of  its 
reaching  the  enemy.  I  would  be  very  glad  to  talk  with 
you,  but  you  can  not  leave  your  camp,  and  I  can  not  well 
leave  here.  A.  Lincoln,  President. 

"  Major-General  George  B.  McClellan." 

For  several  weeks  circumstances,  over  which  the 
General  had  not  very  complete  control,  prevented 
his  giving  to  the  Administration  and  the  country 
the  benefit  of  his  views  on  the  political  conduct  of 
the  war.  But  he  did  not  forget  his  privilege  from 
his  "Excellency,"  as  he  called  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
when  another  quiet  spell  came  on  the  James  River 
he  sent  the  following  wonderful  letter  to  the  Pres- 
ident : — 

"  Head-quarters  Army  of  the  Potomac,         \ 
"  Camp  near  Harrison's  Landing,  Va.,  July  7,  1862.  J 

"  Mr.  President, — You  have  been  fully  informed 
that  the  rebel  army  is  in  the  front,  with  the  purpose  of 
overwhelming  us  by  attacking  our  positions  or  reducing 
us  by  blocking  our  river  communications.  I  can  not  but 
regard  our  condition  as  critical,  and  I  earnestly  desire,  in 
view  of  possible  contingencies,  to  lay  before  your  excel- 
lency, for  your  private  consideration,  my  general  views 
concerning  the  existing  state  of  the  Rebellion,  although 
they  do  not  strictly  relate  to  the  situation  of  this  army,  or 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  337 

strictly  come  within  the  scope  of  my  official  duties.  These 
views  amount  to  convictions,  and  are  deeply,  impressed 
upon  my  mind  and  heart.  Our  cause  must  never  be 
abandoned ;  it  is  the  cause  of  free  institutions  and  self- 
government.  The  Constitution  and  the  Union  must  be 
preserved,  whatever  may  be  the  cost  in  time,  treasure, 
and  blood.  If  secession  is  successful,  other  dissolutions 
are  clearly  to  be  seen  in  the  future.  Let  neither  military 
disaster,  political  faction,  nor  foreign  war  shake  your  set- 
tled purpose  to  enforce  the  equal  operation  of  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  upon  the  people  of  every  State. 

"The  time  has  come  when  the  Government  must  de- 
termine upon  a  civil  and  military  policy,  covering  the 
whole  ground  of  our  national  trouble. 

"  The  responsibility  of  determining,  declaring,  and 
supporting  such  civil  and  military  policy,  and  of  directing 
the  whole  course  of  national  aifairs  in  regard  to  the  Re- 
bellion, must  now  be  assumed  and  exercised  by  you,  or 
our  cause  will  be  lost.  The  Constitution  gives  you  power, 
even  for  the  present  terrible  exigency. 

"This  Rebellion  has  assumed  the  character  of  a  war; 
as  such  it  should  be  regarded,  and  it  should  be  conducted 
upon  the  highest  principles  known  to  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. It  should  not  be  a  war  looking  to  the  subjugation 
of  the  people  of  any  State,  in  any  event.  It  should  not 
be  at  all  a  war  upon  population,  but  against  armed  forces 
and  political  organizations.  Neither  confiscation  of  prop- 
erty, political  executions  of  persons,  territorial  organization 
of  States,  or  forcible  abolition  of  slavery,  should  be  con- 
templated for  a  moment. 

"In  prosecuting  the  war,  all  private  property  and  un- 
armed persons  should  be  strictly  protected,  subject  only 
to  the  necessity  of  military  operations;  all  private  prop- 
erty taken  for  military  use  should  be  paid  or  receipted 
for;  pillage  and  waste  should  be  treated  as  high  crimes; 
all  unnecessary  trespass  sternly  prohibited,  and  offensive 

22— Q 


338  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

demeanor  by  the  military  towards  citizens  promptly  re- 
buked. Military  arrests  should  not  be  tolerated,  except 
in  places  where  active  hostilities  exist;  and  oaths,  not  re- 
quired by  enactments.  Constitutionally  made,  should  be 
neither  demanded  nor  received. 

"Military  government  should  be  confined  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  public  order  and  the  protection  of  political 
right.  Military  power  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere 
with  the  relations  of  servitude,  either  by  supporting  or 
impairing  the  authority  of  the  master,  except  for  repressing 
disorder,  as  in  other  cases.  Slaves,  contraband  under  the 
act  of  Congress,  seeking  military  protection,  should  receive 
it.,  The  right  of  the  Government  to  appropriate  perma- 
nently to  its  own  service  claims  to  slave-labor  should  be 
asserted,  and  the  right  of  the  owner  to  compensation  there- 
for should  be  recognized.  This  principle  might  be  ex- 
tended, upon  grounds  of  military  necessity  and  security,  to 
all  the  slaves  of  a  particular  State,  thus  working  manumis- 
sion in  such  State;  and  in  Missouri,  perhaps  in  Western 
Virginia  also,  and  possibly  even  in  Maryland,  the  expe- 
diency of  such  a  measure  is  only  a  question  of  time.  A 
system  of  policy  thus  Constitutional,  and  pervaded  by  the 
influences  of  Christianity  and  freedom,  would  receive  the 
support  of  almost  all  truly  loyal  men,  would  deeply  im- 
press the  rebel  masses  and  ail  foreign  nations,  and  it  might 
be  humbly  hoped  that  it  would  commend  itself  to  the  favor 
of  the  Almighty. 

"Unless  the  principles  governing  the  future  conduct  of 
our  struggle  shall  be  made  known  and  approved,  the  eiFort 
to  obtain  requisite  forces  will  be  almost  hopeless.  A  dec- 
laration of  radical  views,  especially  upon  slavery,  will  rap- 
idly disintegrate  our  present  armies.  The  policy  of  the 
Government  must  be  supported  by  concentrations  of  mili- 
tary power.  The  national  forces  should  not  be  dispersed 
in  expeditions,  posts  of  occupation,  and  numerous  armies, 
but  should   be   mainly  collected  into  masses,  and  brought 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  339 

to  bear  upon  the  armies  of  the  Confederate  States.  Those 
armies  thoroughly  defeated,  the  political  structure  which 
they  support  would  soon  cease  to  exist. 

"  In  carrying  out  any  system  of  policy  Avhich  you  may 
form,  you  will  require  a  commander-in-chief  of  the  army, 
one  who  possesses  your  confidence,  understands  your  views, 
and  who  is  competent  to  execute  your  orders,  by  directing 
the  military  forces  of  the  Nation  to  the  accomplishment  of 
the  objects  by  you  proposed.  I  do  not  ask  that  place  for 
myself  I  am  willing  to  serve  you  in  such  position  as 
you  may  assign  me,  and  I  will  do  so  as  faithfully  as  ever 
subordinate  served  superior. 

"I  may  be  on  the  brink  of  eternity;  and  as  I  hope 
forgiveness  from  my  Maker,  I  have  written  this  letter 
with  sincerity  towards  you  and  from  love  for  my  country. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  George  B.  McClellan, 

Major-General  Commanding. 

"  His  Excellency  A.  Lincoln,  President." 

This  is  the  most  remarkable  letter  written  by  a 
soldier,  worthy  of  note,  during  the  war,  appealing  to 
official  and  public  respect.  On  first  view  the  last 
paragraph  of  the  letter  disarms  criticism,  and  startles 
feelings  of  mingled  pity  and  contempt.  It  is  the 
highest  appeal,  where  the  common  sentiment  of  man- 
kind demands  silence.  But  when  the  numerous  prom- 
ises, pretensions,  flighty  statements,  and  complaints  of 
General  McClellan  are  taken  into  account,  this  putting 
himself  on  record  w'ith  his  Maker  is  not  startlinir,  and 
the  mere  fact  of  his  doing  so  should  not  be  allowed 
to  lead  judgment  captive,  as  such  things  often  do, 
and  as  they  are  not  unfrequently  designed  to  do. 
Still  there  is  nothing,  perhaps,  criminal  in  this  letter, 


340  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

or  deserving  of  systematic  apology,  if  such  thing 
could  be  made  worthy  of  respect.  Nor  is  there  any 
need  of  asserting  or  believing  that  the  last  pnragraph 
of  General  McClellan's  letter  was  not  written  with 
an  earnest  conviction  of  its  truth.  The  letter  is 
simply  a  piece  of  vanity,  if  no  more.  It  was  so  in 
the  light  of  that  day;  and  it  did  not  cease  to  be  so 
in  the  light  of  all  subsequent  events.  It  does  not 
now  deserve  analysis,  more  than  the  thousands  of 
similar  and  worse  spirited  things,  which  served  to 
complicate  public  affairs,  and  undesignedly  or  de- 
signedly obstruct  the  rightful  progress  of  events,  and 
injure  the  cause  of  the  country.  Beyond  demon- 
strating the  man's  character  and  his  unfitness  for  the 
position  he  occupied,  and  the  troubles  of  the  Admin- 
istration, it  is  a  mere  matter  of  curiosity  and  ridicule 
as  coming  from  the  General  of  the  "  invincible  army  " 
of  the  Potomac,  and  for  these  objects  has  it  been  re- 
produced here. 

On  the  second  day  of  June,  1862,  General 
McClellan  issued  this  address  to  his  army : — 

"  Soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  !  I  have  ful- 
filled at  least  a  part  of  my  promise  to  you.  You  are  now 
face  to  face  with  the  rebels,  who  are  held  at  bay  in  front 
of  their  capital.  The  final  and  decisive  battle  is  at  hand. 
Unless  you  belie  your  past  history,  the  result  can  not  be 
for  a  moment  doubtful.  If  the  troops  who  labored  so 
faithfully  and  fought  so  gallantly  at  Yorktown,  and  who 
so  bravely  won  the  hard  fights  at  Williamsburg,  West 
Point,  Hanover  Court  House  (Fitz  John  Porter's  raid), 
and  Fair  Oaks,  now  prove  themselves  worthy  of  their  an- 
tecedents, the  victory  is  surely  ours. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  341 

"The  events  of  every  day  prove  your  superiority. 
Wherever  you  have  met  the  enemy  you  have  beaten  liim. 
Wherever  you  have  used  the  bayonet  he  has  given  way 
in  panic  and  disorder.  I  ask  of  you  now  one  last  crown- 
ing effort.  The  enemy  has  staked  his  all  on  the  issue  of 
the  coming  battle.  Let  us  meet  him,  crush  him  here,  in 
the  very  center  of  the  Rebellion. 

"Soldiers!  I  will  be  with  you  in  this  battle,  and 
share  its  dangers  with  you.  Our  confidence  in  each  other 
is  now  founded  upon  the  past.  Let  us  strike  the  blow 
which  is  to  restore  peace  and  union  to  this  distracted 
land.  Upon  your  valor,  discipline,  and  mutual  confidence, 
the  result  depends.' 


j> 


The  inexplicable  air  of  unsoundness  about  this 
document  is  only  made  more  dense  by  the  events 
that  follow.  General  McClellan's  biographer  says 
that  for  three  weeks  after  this  date  nothing  of  im- 
portance happened  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Whenever  it  could  do  so,  it  began  to  repeat  its 
early  history. 

General  McClellan  had  but  recently  telegraphed 
the  President  that  all  that  could  be  nccomplished 
by  rapid  movements  he  might  feel  confident  would 
be  done.  But  these  things  he  forgot.  He  made 
no  rapid  movements.     Late  in  May  he  had  said : — 

"Delays  on  my  part  will  be  dangerous.  I  fear  sick- 
ness and  demoralization.  This  region  is  unhealthy  for 
Northern  men,  and  unless  kept  moving,  I  fear  that  our 
soldiers  may  become  discouraged." 

Still  his  great  and  preposterous  pretensions  of 
love  for  his  soldiers  did  not  prevent  his  holding 
them  in  idleness  in  the  Chickahominy  swamps  until 


342  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  rebel  army  was  ready  to  meet  him,  and  his  case 
had  actually  become  desperate.  It  had,  perhaps, 
been  a  misfortune  to  the  cause  of  the  country  that 
McDowell  was  unable  to  bring  his  vast  force  to  op- 
erate with  McClellan  before  Richmond.  But  the 
rebel  management  had  been  superior,  and  to  some 
extent  their  generalship. 

That  it  was  always  the  intention  of  the  Adminis- 
tration to  send  not  only  McDowell  but  all  other 
troops  as  they  could  and  should  be  spared  to  McClel- 
lan, no  right-minded  person,  probably,  ever  doubted. 
On  the  23d  of  May,  the  President  and  the  Secretary 
of  War  visited  the  camp  of  McDowell  at  Fredericks- 
burg, and  then  it  was  arranged  that  McDowell 
should  move  to  form  the  junction  with  this  trouble- 
some officer  on  Monday,  the  26th. 

In  the  meantime  the  operations  of  Stonewall  Jack- 
son in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  threw  the  authorities  at 
Washington  and  the  people  of  the  loyal  States  into 
an  intense  excitement.  Not  only  were  the  gover- 
nors urged  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  send  to  Wash- 
ington all  their  volunteers  and  militia,  and  all  the 
railroads  taken  possession  of  by  order  of  the  Presi- 
dent to  be  turned  on  a  moment's  warning  to  the 
exclusive  needs  of  the  Government,  but  all  available 
troops  from  West  Virginia  were  started  for  the  valley, 
and  McDowell's  movement  towards  Richmond  was 
stopped,  and  himself  with  the  great  part  of  his  army 
started  after  Jackson.  To  this  useless  task  Mc- 
Dowell turned  with  a  heavy  heart,  but  with  the 
obedience    and    expedition    of   a    true    soldier.     He 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  343 

believed  that  Jackson  woijld  be  out  of  his  reach 
long  before  he  could  strike  him,  but  in  this  he  was 
not  altogether  correct.  Although  Jackson  did  whip 
the  Union  troops  at  McDowell  and  Front  Royal,  and 
then  drove  Banks  in  great  consternation  before  him 
out  of  Virginia,  and  in  his  retreat  managed  with 
great  skill  to  repulse  and  whip  back  his  pursuers  at 
Cross  Keyes  and  Port  Republic,  he  had  no  notion  of 
attempting  to  capture  Washington,  nor  even  to  cross 
into  Maryland.  The  groundless  and  unwise  scare  at 
Washington  had  effectually  diverted  McDowell  from 
joining  McClellan,  although  one  of  his  divisions  did 
do  so.  No  one  was,  perhaps,  more  disappointed  in 
this  result  than  McDowell.  He  liked  McClellan  and 
believed  with  him  that  by  the  addition  of  his  whole 
corps,  or  the  greater  part  of  it,  to  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  the  destiny  of  Richmond  would  be  sealed. 
Although  McClellan  never  ceased  to  push  the 
President  to  send  McDowell,  his  words  at  least  show 
that  he  was  more  concerned  as  to  the  command  he 
should  have  over  him  than  he  was  about  the  succor 
to  his  army,  or  indeed  its  success.  On  the  21st  of 
May  he  telegraphed  to  the  President : — 

"If  a  junction  is  effected  before  we  occupy  Richmond, 
it  must  necessarily  be  east  of  the  railroad  to  Fredericks- 
burg and  within  my  department.  This  fact,  my  superior 
rank,  and  the  express  language  of  the  sixty-second  article 
of  war,  will  place  his  command  under  my  orders,  unless 
it  is  otherwise  specially  directed  by  your  excellency." 

A  day  or  two  later  the  harassed  Lincoln  in  one 
of  his  dispatches  to  the  General,  reiterated:     "You 


344  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

will  have  command  of  M^cDowell,  after  he  joins  you, 
precisely  as  you  indicated  in  your  long  dispatch  to 
us  of  the  21st." 

When  McDowell  was  under  orders  again  for  the 
third  time  to  join  McClellan,  and  the  division  of 
General  George  A.  McCall  had  actually  gone  for- 
ward by  water,  he  wrote  to  McClellan  on  the  12th 
of  June  :  "  My  Third  Division  (McCall's)  is  now  on 
the  way.  Please  do  me  the  favor  to  so  place  it  that 
it  may  be  in  a  position  to  join  the  others  as  they 
come  down  from  Fredericksburg." 

In  making  this  request  McDowell  was  simply 
going  according  to  the  exact  language  of  an  order 
from  the  War  Department  to  keep  the  part  of  his 
army  which  should  be  taken  to  the  aid  of  McClellan 
together  under  his  command.  But  this  request  fired 
McClellan  at  once,  and  this  is  the  way  he  wrote  to 
Washington  about  it : — 

"  That  request  does  not  breathe  the  proper  spirit. 
Whatever  troops  come  to  me  must  be  disposed  of  so  as  to 
do  the  most  good.  I  do  not  feel  that,  in  such  circum- 
stances as  those  in  which  I  am  now  placed,  General  Mc- 
Dowell should  wish  the  general  interests  to  be  sacrificed 
for  the  purpose  of  increasing  his  command.  If  I  can  not 
fully  control  all  his  troops,  I  want  none  of  them,  but 
would  prefer  to  fight  the  battle  with  what  I  have,  and  let 
others  be  responsible  for  the  results. 

"The  department  lines  should  not  be  allowed  to  inter- 
fere with  me ;  but  General  McDowell,  and  all  other  troops 
sent  to  me,  should  be  placed  completely  at  my  disposal,  to 
do  with  them  as  I  think  best.-  In  no  other  way  can  they  be 
of  assistance  to  me.  I  therefore  request  that  I  may  have 
entire  and  full  control.     The  stake  at  issue  is  too  great  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  345 

allow  personal  considerations  to  be  entertained.    You  know 
that  I  have  none." 

Calls  for  re-enforcements,  complaints,  or  some- 
what fictitious  reports  of  his  army,  his  intentions, 
preparations,  and  so  forth,  continued  to  pour  from 
General  McClellan  toward  Washington  ;  and  when  at 
last  he  discovered  that  Stonewall  Jackson  had  arrived, 
and  began  in  his  alarm  to  see  an  enormous  army  mov- 
ing upon  him,  he  fell  into  a  strain  of  tragic  taunting, 
telling  the  President  that  while  he  regretted  his  in- 
feriority of  numbers,  he  did  not  consider  himself  any 
way  responsible.  He  had  talked  in  deaf  ears  long 
enough.  He  would  do  all  that  any  general  could  do, 
and  share  the  fate  of  his  splendid  army.  But  if  a 
disaster  befell  him  it  must  rest  where  it  belonged. 

On  the  night  of  the  same  day,  June  25th,  Secre- 
tary Stanton  replied,  as  he  had  repeatedly  done 
before,  that  he  was  then  doing  everything  in  his 
power,  as  he  always  had  done,  to  aid  and  give  him 
success;  and  on  the  next  day  the  President  wrote: — 

"  Washington,  June  26,  1862. 

"  Major-General  McClellan, — Your  three  dis- 
patches of  yesterday  in  relation  to  the  affair,  ending  with 
the  statement  that  you  completely  succeeded  in  making 
your  point,  are  very  gratifying. 

"  The  later  one,  of  6.15  P.  M.,  suggesting  the  probability 
of  your  being  overwhelmed  by  two  hundred  thousand,  and 
talking  of  where  the  responsibility  will  belong,  pains  me 
very  much.  I  give  you  all  I  can,  and  act  on  the  pre- 
sumption that  you  will  do  the  best  you  can  with  what  you 
have,  while  you  continue,  ungenerously  I  think,  to  assume 
that  I  could  give  you  more  if  I  would.     I  have  omitted, 


346  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  shall  omit,  no  opportunity  to  send  you  re-enforcements 
whenever  I  possibly  can.  A.  Lincoln." 

On  the  20th  of  June,  1862,  General  McClellan 
reported  the  strength  of  his  army  present  for  duty 
at  115,102 ;  on  special  duty,  etc.,  12,225;  and  absent 
on  furlough,  and  so  forth,  29,511.  And  with  this 
grand  force,  he  said  as  soon  as  Providence  would 
permit  him  to  do  so  he  would  begin  to  fight  the 
rebels,  and  take  their  town  and  other  things. 

Providence  did  not  keep  him  much  longer  idle. 
Against  the  night  of  the  25th  of  June  he  had  moved 
his  head-quarters  to  the  south  side  of  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  and  the  greater  part, of  his  army  was  also 
over  there.  With  the  other  side  he  communicated 
by  the  Richmond  and  York  River  Railroad,  and  by 
several  good  bridges  he  had  constructed  ;  and  on  that 
side  he  still  had  the  right  wing  of  his  army  stretch- 
ing out  to  Mechanicsville,  this  place  being  the  out- 
post, and  Fitz  John  Porter's  corps  lying  along  in  the 
rear  of  this  point  toward  the  bridge  connecting  him 
with  the  main  army.  Although  his  army  was  di- 
vided in  this  way  by  the  Chickahominy,  his  facilities 
of  communication  were  good  ;  and  in  view  of  the  turn 
in  his  affairs  which  now  followed,  this  arrangement 
of  his  force  was  fortunate.  His  concentration  on  the 
south  side  of  the  river  had  been  made  with  the 
avowed  purpose  of  operating  against  Richmond,  and 
although  he  had  allowed  nearly  a  month  to  pass  since 
the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks,  in  which  time  Lee  had  col- 
lected an  army  nearly  equal  to  his  own,  it  was  even 
yet  not  too  late  for  him  to  execute  his  original  design. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  347 

At  nil  events,  under  a  less  timid  and  more  ener- 
getic commander,  the  case  was  not  hopeless  then. 
After  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks  Richmond  was  at  his- 
mercy,  but  now  it  was  well  fortified.  Yet  Lee's 
main  army  was  north  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  the 
three  divisions  (about  twenty-five  thousand  men)  of 
it  on  the  other  side ;  McClellan  could  have  assailed 
and  overwhelmed  it,  and  have  fallen  upon  the  main 
body  from  before  Richmond,  Porter's  corps  keeping 
it  at  bay  in  the  meantime.  This  would,  at  any  rate, 
have  furnished  him  a  field  for  the  last  or  final  struff- 
gle,  which  he  had  so  long  promised  his  army. 

But  General  McCleUan's  thoughts  were  turned  in  ' 
another  direction.  From  his  liead-quarters  to  the 
Jjimes  River,  at  Harrison's  Landing,  it  was  seven- 
teen miles,  and  a  week  before  he  had  ordered  prep- 
arations to  be  made  for  sending  supplies  from  York 
River  to  the  James,  so  that  if  he  was  driven  to  cut 
his  connection  with  his  former  base  and  retreat  to 
the  latter  stream  he  would  there  find  supplies  and 
the  aid  of  the  gun-bo.'its.  The  ch;inge  of  the  depot 
of  supplies  from  York  to  James  River,  however, 
when  it  came,  was  not  a  voluntary  '•'  change  of  base  '* 
merely  with  General  McClellan.  It  was  what  he 
considered  a  forced  necessity.  It  was  a  retreat,  a 
timid  running  by  day  and  night  from  what  he  repre- 
sented as  a  superior  rebel  force  of  two  hundred  thou- 
sand men.  It  may  have  been  gratifying  at  the  time 
to  talk  of  McClellan's  "  change  of  base,"  but  this 
piece  of  insincerity  could  not  become  a  part  of  the 
true  history  of  the  war.     So  soon  as  he  fully  decided 


348  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  make  the  James  River  the  source  of  his  supplies 
he  began  to  retreat,  and  two  things  he  never  spared 
•  night  or  day  until  he  reached  Harrison's  Landing — 
Government  property  and  the  lives  or  hardships  of 
his  soldiers. 

General  Lee  had  made-  his  arrangements  to  assail 
the  Union  army  with  his  main  force  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Chickahominy  where  it  was  weak,  and 
after  completely  cutting  all  connection  with  its  "  base 
of  supplies"  on  York  River,  he  believed  he  would  be 
master  of  the  situation,  and  able  to  capture  or  de- 
stroy his  uncertain  foe.  But  it  was  long  after  noon 
on  the  26th  before  Lee  was  ready  to  begin  the  exe- 
cution of  his  purpose,  and  when  night  closed  the 
battle  of  Mechanicsville,  the  first  of  the  seven  days' 
fighting,  the  advantage  was  decidedly  with  the  Union 
army,  the  rebels  having  met  a  severe  repulse.  That 
night  the  remaining  trains  and  other  army  supplies 
were  crossed  to  the  south  side  of  the  river,  and 
started  on  their  way  to  the  James  River,  and  Gen- 
eral George  D.  Stoneman  had  been  sent  to  clear  the 
depots  along  the  York  River,  sending  off  all  the 
property  possible  and  destroying  the  rest. 

During  the  morning  of  the  27th  the  troops  en- 
gaged at  Mechanicsville  on  the  previous  day  took  a 
position  five  miles  in  the  rear  with  Porter  at  Gaines's. 
Mills,  or  Cold  Harbor.  Here  General  McClellan 
deemed  it  necessary  to  make  a  strong  resistance  in 
order  to  gain  time  to  get  his  trains  far  on  their  way 
to  the  James  River,  and  effect  his  other  arrange- 
ments for  the  great  retreat.     It  was  again  after  noon 


ABEAHAM  LINCOLN.  349 

before  the  rebels  came  up.  A  desperate  battle  en- 
sued. Twice  Porter  was  compelled  to  send  to  Gen- 
enil  McClellan  for  re-enforcements.  The  Union 
forces  were  everywhere  beaten  back,  and  eight  or 
nine  thousand  men  were  lost.  That  night  Porter 
succeeded  in  crossing  the  river  and  destroying  the 
bridges  after  him. 

During  this  day  General  Lee  found,  to  his  utter 
disappointment  and  amazement,  that  McClellan  had 
actually  given  up  his  York  River  "base,"  and  was 
making  with  all  his  ability  for  the  James.  This 
state  of  affiiirs  put  the  rebel  General  at  great  disad- 
vantage. Indeed,  it  was  now  evident  that  he  had 
already  failed  in  his  purpose,  and  had  done  about  all 
he  could  do  in  preventing  the  retreat  of  an  army  not 
greatly  outnumbering  his  own,  an  army  .encumbered 
with  a  vast  train  and  several  thousand  head  of  cattle 
stretching  out  one-half  of  the  whole  distance  to  Har- 
rison's Landing.  Notwithstanding  the  bulk  of  his 
army  was  now  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  which  he  could  not  cross  without  repairing 
the  bridges,  Lee  still  believed  he  would  be  able  to 
thwart  the  undertaking  of  the  Union  General.  He 
was  mistaken  and  outgeneraled,  and  he  was  now  not 
only  unable  to  throw  any  obstruction  in  the  way  of 
McClellan's  retreat,  but  in  the  five  days  of  the  pur- 
suit met  little  else  than  disaster  himself,  notwith- 
standing the  thousands  of  blue  overcoats  and  other 
superabundance  of  the  Union  army  cast  along  the 
way  for  his  benefit. 

Saturday,    the     28th,     McClellan     was     mainly 


350  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

unmolested  in  his  retreat.  A  little  artillery  practice 
and  skirmishing  were  all,  and  otherwise  the  vast 
train,  and  the  army  of  which,  a  little  while  ago, 
McClellan  had  said,  "we  are  invincible,"  he  almost 
believed,  went  quietly  on  its  course.  The  most  con- 
siderable obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  retreating  army 
was  White-oak  Swamp,  but  this  wns  bridged,  and 
after  an  engagement  of  no  great  importance  at  Sav- 
age's Station,  on  Sunday  evening  the  rear  of  the 
army  under  Sumner  passed  over,  destroying  the 
bridge  after  it.  Still  Jefferson  Davis,  and  most  of 
the  rebel  leaders  thought  they  had  all  the  time  and 
means  they  needed  for  bagging  the  retreating  foe. 
Every  eflbrt  was  put  forth  to  intercept  him,  but  it 
did  not  avail.  Stonewall  Jackson,  A.  P.  Hill,  D.  H. 
Hill,  John  Bankhead  Magruder,  James  Longstreet,  J. 
E.  B.  Stuart,  and  a  host  of  other  fiery  rebels  were  in 
hot  pursuit,  all  eager  to  pieice  the  Union  line,  but  the 
game  glided  beyond  their  reach.  McClellan  never 
lost  the  advantage  with  which  he  started. 

Toward  evening  on  Monday,  at  Frazier's  Farm,  a 
severe  fight  took  place,  but  the  rebels  were  kept  at 
bay,  and  made  no  advance  in  disorganizing  or  break- 
ing the  long  Federal  line.  And  that  night  McClellan 
reached  Malvern  Hill  near  the  James.  Here  ai-- 
rangements  were  made  to  check  the  pursuers.  Mal- 
vern Hill  is  an  elevated  plateau  less  than  a  mile  in 
width,  but  two  or  three  miles  long,  gradually  sloping 
to  the  river  and  to  the  open  country.  This  naturally 
strong  position,  which  could  not  be  turned,  McClellan 
hastily   fortified,   and   while    he   still  prepared  for  a 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  351 

farther  march  of  six  or  seven  miles  to  Harrison's 
Landing,  awaited  the  assault  of  the  rebels  without  a 
doubt  of  the  result. 

The  sixth  day  had  now  come,  Tuesday,  July  1st, 
since  the  fighting  began.  It  was  late  in  the  day 
before  the  rebels  arrived  and  began  to  face  the  work 
they  had  before  them.  It  wns  a  grim  prospect.  The 
jruns  of  the  whole  Federal  army  bristled  above  them 
ready  to  sweep  the  open  declivity  up  which  they 
would  be  compelled  to  move,  if  they  moved  at  all. 
With  the  gun-boats  in  their  rear,  the  Union  forces 
lay  in  a  semicircle  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  eager  for 
the  onset.  This  sight  must  have  shaken  the  faith 
of  General  Lee.  The  question  of  McClellan's  escape 
was  not  now  doubtful ;  and  neither  good  generalship 
nor  respect  for  the  lives  of  his  own  men  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  Lee's  determination  to  attempt  to 
drive  the  Union  army  from  this  position.  It  was 
not  a  demoralized  army  ready  to  run  or  throw  down 
its  arms. 

Lee  ordered  the  attack  to  be  made,  but  even 
as  late  as  six  o'clock,  when  it  really  began  with  de- 
termination, misunderstanding  and  a  lack  of  zeal 
characterized  the  movements  of  the  rebels.  Some  of 
their  best  commands  did  not  participate,  and  those 
that  did  make  the  assault  were  slaughtered  or  driven 
like  chaff  before  the  circle  of  flame  which  poured 
down  upon  them.  A  half  dozen  such  assaults,  while 
affecting  the  Federals  but  little,  would  have  destroyed 
the  rebel  army,  and  opened  the  way  for  McClellan 
to  Richmond.     The  task  was  impossible,  and  it  was 


352  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

well  for  Lee  that  night  soon  put  an  end  to  the 
bloody  strife  at  Malvern  Hill. 

But  this  was  not  the  end  of  the  retreat.  Early 
on  the  morning  of  the  1st,  McClelhin  went  on  a  bont 
down  to  Harrison's  Landing,  and  did  not  return  until 
long  after  noon,  and  then  even  chose  to  remain  on 
the  boat  until  an  urgent  demand  was  sent  for  his 
presence  at  Malvern  Hill,  where  he  remained  until 
night.  A  great  storm  set  in,  but  this  did  not  deter 
McCIellan,  and  before  midnight  the  Union  army  was 
groping  along  the  one  narrow,  muddy  road  to  Har- 
rison's Landing  which  was  reached  by  noon  on 
Wednesday^  July  2d,  by  the  greater  part  of  the  force 
though  the  whole  immense  train  did  not  arrive  until 
late  on  the  3d.  The  retreat  over  the  seven  miles 
from  Malvern  to  Harrison's  Landing  was  that  of  an 
unorganized  body  of  a  hundred  thousand  men, 
which  could  have  been  diverted  by  the  presence  of 
a  disciplined  foe  into  an  uncontrollable  and  ruined 
mass  of  soldiery. 

The  march  was  that  of  a  beaten  and  leaderless 
army,  instead  of  the  well-controlled  and  spirited 
victors  of  Malvern  Hill.  Fortunately  they  were  left 
undisturbed,  the  rebels  having  been  too  badly  disor- 
ganized and  beaten  on  the  1st  to  offer  even  a  feeble 
pursuit  on  McClellan's  "home-stretch."  Lee  now 
made  little  further  effort  against  this  army. 

W.  H.  Taylor,  in  his  "  Four  Years  with  General 
Lee,"  says : — 

"  Without  attempting  an  account  of  any  one  of  the  seven 
engagements  embraced  in  the  seven  days'  battles,  so  fully 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  353 

described  in  General  Lee's  official  report,  I  can  not  for- 
bear mention  of  a  maladroit  performance  just  before  their 
termination,  but  for  which  I  have  always  thought  that 
McClellan's  army  would  have  been  further  driven,  even  'to 
the  wall/  and  made  to  surrender — a  trifling  matter  in  it- 
self apparently,  and  yet  worthy  of  thoughtful  consideration. 
General  McClellan  had  retreated  to  Harrison's  Landing; 
his  army,  suj»ply,and  baggage  trains  were  scattered  in  much 
confusion  in  and  about  Westover  plantation;  our  army 
was  moving  down  upon  him,  its  progress  much  retarded  by 
natural  and  artificial  obstacles ;  General  Stuart  was  in  ad- 
vance, in  command  of  the  cavalry.  In  rear  of  and  around 
Westover  there  is  a  range  of  hills  or  elevated  ground, 
completely  commanding  the  plains  below.  Stuart,  glo- 
rious Stuart !  always  at  the  front  and  full  of  fight, 
gained  these  hills.  Below  him,  is  a  panorama,  appeared 
the  camps  and  trains  of  the  enemy,  within  easy  range  of 
his  artillery.  The  temptation  was  too  strong  to  be  re- 
sisted; he  commanded  some  of  his  guns  to  open  fire.  The 
consternation  caused  thereby  was  immediate  and  positive. 
It  frightened  the  enemy,  but  it  enlightened  him. 

"  Those  heights  in  our  possession,  the  enemy's  position 
was  altogether  untenable,  and  he  was  at  our  mercy ;  un- 
less they  could  be  recaptured  his  capitulation  was  inevita- 
ble. Half  a  dozen  shells  from  Stuart's  battery  quickly 
demonstrated  this.  The  enemy,  not  slow  in  comprehend- 
ing his  danger,  soon  advanced  his  infantry  in  force,  to 
dislodge  our  cavalry  and  repossess  the  heights.  This  was 
accomplished ;  the  hills  were  fortified,  and  became  the 
Federal  line  of  defense,  protected  at  each  flank  by  a  bold 
creek,  which  emptied  into  James  River,  and  by  the  heavy 
batteries  of  the  fleet  anchored  opposite.  Had  the  infantry 
been  up,  General  Lee  would  have  made  sure  of  this 
naturally  strong  line,  fortified  it  well,  maintained  it  against 
assault,  and  dictated  to  General  McClellan  terms  of  sur- 
render;   and   had  the  attention  of  the  enemy  not  been  so 

23— Q 


354  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

precipitately  directed  to  his  danger  by  the  shots  from  the 
little  howitzers,  it  is  reasonable  to  presume  that  the  in- 
fantry would  have  been  up  in  time  to  secure  the  plateau." 

This  is  an  over-fair  picture  of  the  case.  The 
vi^hole  army  was  in  truth  huddled  in  a  narrow  space 
along  the  river,  and  no  orders  for  occupying  this 
ridge  commanding  the  position  were  given  the  first 
day ;  nor  were  the  troops  put  in  a  condition  for 
making  any  resistance  in  the  plain  below.  Not  until 
on  the  third  day  of  July  did  McClellan  begin  to 
take  possession  of  and  fortify  the  hills.  General 
Casey  testified  before  the  Committee  on  the  Conduct 
of  the  War  that  twenty  thousand  of  the  rebels  on 
the  ridge  surrounding  the  Landing  could  have  taken 
the  whole  army,  excepting  the  small  part  of  it  which 
could  have  got  off  in  the  boats.  The  opinion  of  Mr. 
Taylor  given  here  was  general  among  Federal  offi- 
cers, and  the  grounds  that  gave  rise  to  it  should,  at 
least,  have  given  the  Army  of  the  'Potomac  a  new 
commander,  about  the  only  re-enforcement  it  needed 
to  enable  it  to  resume  successfully  its  march  to 
Richmond.  But,  as  it  was- the  celebrated  "Penin- 
sular Campaign"  was  substantially  at  an  end. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  355 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— McCLELLAN  AT  HAR- 
RISON'S LANDING  —  EVACUATION  OF  THE  PENIN- 
SULA—LINCOLN AND  McCLELLAN— AN  INDEFENSIBLE 
CAREER— THE  GREAT  GENERAL  NOT  YET  FOUND. 

IN  the  week's  fighting  and  running  from  Mechanics- 
ville  to  Harrison's  Landing  General  McClellan 
lost,  according  to  his  own  report,  one  thousand  five 
hundred  and  eighty-two  killed,  seven  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  nine  wounded,  five  thousand  nine  hun- 
died  and  fifty-eight  missing,  in  all  fifteen  thousand 
two  hundred  and  forty-nine  men.  This  was,  in  all 
probability,  a  low  estimate,  and  probably  did  not  in- 
clude the  sick  left  behind  in  the  hospitals.  There 
is,  perhaps,  no  indubitable  evidence  that  the  rebels 
did  not  suffer  a  loss  even  greater,  although  the  facts 
were  mainly  concealed.  On  the  3d  of  July  Mc- 
Clellan reported  to  the  Secretary  of  War  that  he 
supposed  he  had  not  then  left  with  their  colors  over 
fifty  thousand  soldiers  of  all  the  invincible  host 
landed  with  him  on  the  Peninsula.  This  was  start- 
ling, and  the  strange  discrepnncies  it  suggested,  as 
well  as  other  considerations,  induced  President  Lin- 
coln to  go  nil  the  way  to  Harrison's  Landing  to  see 
for  himself  the  condition  of  the  army.  And  only 
four  days  after   McClellan   had   made   this    frightful 


356  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

report  it  was  found  that  there  were  about  eighty- 
eight  thousand  soldiers  present  at  the  Landing. 
Thus  an  enormous  gap  was  filled.  But  on  the  20th 
of  June  there  were  about  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
thousand  men  present  for  duty  on  the  Chickahominy. 
Then,  if  fifteen  or  even  twenty  thousand  were  lost  in  . 
the  "  seven  days'  battles "  and  retreat,  there  would 
still  remain  a  discrepancy  of  from  seven  to  fifteen 
thousand  men,  and  no  clew  to  these  can  readily  be 
found,  unless  it  is  in  the  amazing  supposition  that 
they  had  been  sent  off  on  furlough  on  the  very  eve 
of  the  battles  and  retreat.  Even  after  Mr.  Lincoln's 
visit,  there  was  some  dispute  about  McClellan's 
strength,  which  gave    rise  to  the  following  letter  : — 

"  Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  ■) 
"  July  13,  1862.  | 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — I  am  told  that  over  one  hundred 
and  sixty  thousand  men  have  gone  with  your  army  on  the 
Peninsula.  When  I  was  with  you  the  other  day,  we  made 
out  eighty-six  thousand  remaining,  leaving  seventy-three 
thousand  five  hundred  to  be  accounted  for.  I  believe 
three  thousand  five  hundred  will  cover  all  the  killed, 
wounded,  and  missing,  in  all  your  battles  and  skirmishes, 
leaving  fifty  thousand  who  have  left  otherwise.  Not  more 
than  five  thousand  of  these  have  died,  leaving  forty-five 
thousand  of  your  army  still  alive,  and  not  with  it.  I  be- 
lieve half  or  two-thirds  of  them  are  fit  for  duty  to-day. 
Have  you  any  more  perfect  knowledge  of  this  than  I 
have?  If  I  am  right,  and  you  had  these  men  with  you, 
you  could  go  into  Richmond  in  the  next  three  days.  How 
can  they  be  got  to  you,  and  how  can  they  be  prevented 
from  getting  away  in  such  numbers  in  the  future? 

"Abraham  Lincoln." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  357 

This  brought  the  statement  from  the  General  that 
over  thirty-four  thousand  of  his  men  were  absent  on 
furlough  by  permission,  and  over  three  thousand 
were  absent  without  permission  ;  and  of  the  more 
than  thirty-eight  thousnnd  thus  absent  he  thought 
one-half,  at  least,  was  fit  for  active  duty.  Lee  in  his 
report  says  very  truly  that  "the  siege  of  Rich- 
mond was  raised,  and  the  object  of  a  campaign,  which 
had  been  prosecuted  after  months  of  preparation,  at 
an  enormous  expenditure  of  men  and  money,  com- 
pletely frustrated."  And  in  referring  to  McClellan's 
losses  he  says:  "His  losses  in  battle  exceeded  our 
own,  as  attested  by  the  thousands  of  dead  and 
wounded  left  on  every  field,  while  his  subsequent  in- 
action shows  in  what  condition  the  survivors  reached 
the  protection  to  which  they  fled." 

But  the  latter  part  of  this  statement  was  merely 
besdno;  the  case,  and  was  triflinc:  and  unwise  on  the 
part  of  Lee,  as  he  knew  then,  as  everybody  else  did, 
that  McClellan's  inactivity  never  could  have  been 
taken  for  a  sign  of  the  weakness  of  his  army.  The 
sources  of  his  inaction  must  be  sought  elsewhere. 
His  activity  was  most  displayed  in  his  letters  and 
dispatches,  and  in  his  retreat.  If  McClellan's  army 
was  not  strong  enough  to  fight  Lee  and  maintain  its 
position,  then  it  was  a  military  necessity  to  retreat 
to  the  York  or  the  James.  On  the  slightest 
grounds  he  always  seemed  disposed  to  exaggerate  or 
really  fancy  the  rebel  force  greater  than  his  own.  At 
Riclnnond  he  waited  on  account  of  Providence  and 
other  things,  until  he  said  the  rebel  army  was  perhaps 


358  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

two  hundred  thousand  strong ;  and  under  some 
such  impression  he  started  to  secure  himself  down  at 
James  River.  In  overestimating  the  rebel  strength, 
however,  McClellan  only  displayed  a  common  fault 
among  Northern  people.  The  spirit  of  exaggeration 
ruled  the  time,  and  where  it  is  not  openly  seen,  it 
lurks  throughout  current  narrative  and  record,  so 
that  the  task  of  the  historian  is  not  only  difficult  and 
irksome,  but  also  sometimes  doubtful  in  the  end.  It  is 
probably  a  fact  that  the  rebels  were  never  able  during 
the  war  to  gather  into  one  army  for  single  combat  a 
hundred  thousand  soldiers.  And  they  never  did  so, 
even  if  they  were  able  to  spare  them  from  the  various 
salient  points  in  the  vast  boundary  they  undertook 
to  defend. 

McClellan's  retrent  to  the  James  River  from  an 
army  even  less  numerous  than  his  own  was  regarded 
by  foreign  soldiers,  and  by  most  of  his  countrymen, 
as  a  brilliant  and  wonderful  feat.  This  much  has 
been  already  intimated  here.  But  this  brilliant  re- 
treat was  no  compensation  for  the  utter  failure  of  the 
"  Peninsular  Campaign."  And  even  the  little  credit 
due  him  for  this  successful  retrent  was  greatly  modi- 
fied by  the  state  of  his  army  during  the  last  seven 
miles,  and  its  defenseless  condition  for  a  day  or  two 
after  the  difficult  journey  was  over.  He  was  not  al- 
lowed to  go  to  the  "  Peninsula"  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing glorious  retreats.  He  had  selected  his  own  field, 
and  in  it  he  had  held  out  the  idea  that  he  would  in 
one  grand  stroke  crush  the  Rebellion.  Nothing  had 
been  withheld  from  him  which  could  be  given.     But 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  359 

on  the  '•  Peninsula "  he  resumed  the  undecided  and 
dilatory  habits  which  had  distinguished  him  on  the 
Potomac.  From  first  to  last  his  cry  was  for  more 
troops,  and  yet  he  kept  on  furlough  nearly  one-fourth 
of  his  army,  and  was  never  able  to  bring  into  action 
half  of  the  men  who  had  muskets  in  their  hands. 
But  once  were  his  troops  massed  during  the  cam- 
paign, at  Malvern  Hill,  and  there  they  were  in- 
vincible, indeed.  And  at  Malvern  Hill  all  admiration, 
even  on  the  part  of  the  panegyrists  of  fine  retreats, 
must  cease.  From  that  point  to  Harrison's  Landing 
and  for  a  day  afterwards  he  had  no  army,  but  only  a 
disorganized  mass  of  men,  horses,  cattle,  wagons,  and 
materials  of  war. 

Why  did  General  McClellan  continue  his  retreat 
below  Malvern  Hill?  Of  course,  his  "base"  was 
better  on  the  river  at  Harrison's  Landing,  but  at  the 
former  place  his  communications  were  complete,  and 
he  had  the  aid  of  the  gun-boats.  Malvern  Hill  was 
seven  miles  nearer  Richmond  if  he  wanted  to  go 
there,  and  even  in  his  temporary  defenses  there  it 
was  apparent  he  could  whip  the  rebels  whenever  they 
chose  to  assail  him.  They  could  have  interfered 
with  his  communications  more  readily  at  that  point 
on  the  river,  but  still  this  only  begs  the  case.  His 
general  officers  were  unanimously  opposed  to  retreat- 
ing beyond  or  giving  up  Malvern  Hill.  Even  his 
favorite,  Fitz  John  Porter,  was  bitterly  against  it. 
And  when  the  order  came  to  abandon  this  position 
after  repulsing  the  rebels  with  great  slaughter,  and 
demonstrating  its  superior  advantages  it  is  easy  to 


360  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

imagine  the  indignation  and  amazement  of  the  brave 
men  who  never  had  any  heart  in  the  retrogression 
from  the  outset.  In  the  midst  of  a  group  of  these 
astonished  and  disappointed  officers  General  Kearny 
made  the  following  speech :  "  I,  Philip  Kearny, 
an  old  soldier,  enter  my  solemn  protest  against  this 
order  to  retreat.  We  ought,  instead  of  retreating,  to 
follow  up  the  enemy  and  take  Richmond.  And,  in 
full  view  of  all  the  responsibility  of  such  a  declara- 
tion, I  say  to  you  all  that  such  an  order  can  only 
be  prompted  by  cowardice  or  treason.'  And  the 
brave  old  soldier's  sentiment  was  echoed  from  many  a 
sore  heart. 

Now  for  a  brief  view  of  McClellan's  course 
toward  the  authorities  at  Washington,  and  his  de- 
parture from  the  Peninsula. 

On  the  very  day  before  the  battle  of  Mechanics- 
ville,  McClellan  called  for  re-enforcements ;  and  on 
the  next  day  the  President  dispatched,  as  has  been 
seen  : — 

"  I  give  you  all  I  can,  and  act  on  the  presumption 
that  you  will  do  the  best  you  can  with  what  you  have; 
while  you  continue,  ungenerously  I  think,  to  assume  tiiat 
I  could  give  you  more  if  I  would.  I  have  omitted,  I 
shall  omit,  no  opportunity  to  send  you  re-enforcements 
whenever  I  can." 

On  the  28th  the  General  in  great  heat  sent  the 
following  communication  to  Washington  : — 

"Head-quarters  Army  of  the  Potomac,) 
"Savage's  Station,  June  28,  1862,  12.20  A.  M.        ( 

"I  now    know    the  full  history  of  the    day.     On  this 

side   of  the   river  (the   right   bank)    we   repulsed   several 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  361 

strong:  attacks.  On  the  left  bank  our  men  did  all  that  men 
could  do,  all  that  soldiers  could  accomplish,  but  they  were 
overwhelmed  by  vastly  superior  numbers,  even  after  I 
brought  my  last  reserves  into  action.  The  loss  on  both 
sides  is  terrible.  I  believe  it  will  prove  to  be  the  most 
desperate  battle  of  the  war.  Tlie  sad  remnants  of  my  men 
behave  as  men.  Those  battalions  who  fought  most  bravely, 
and  suffered  most,  are  still  in  the  best  order.  My  regulars 
were  superb;  and  I  count  upon  what  are  left  to  turn  another 
battle,  in  company  with  their  gallant  comrades  of  the  vol- 
unteers. Had  I  twenty  thousand,  or  even  ten  thousand, 
fresh  troops  to  use  to-morrow,  I  could  take  Richmond;  but 
I  have  not  a  man  in  reserve,  and  shall  be  glad  to  cover  my 
retreat  and  save  the  material  and  personnel  of  the  army. 

"If  we  have  lost  the  day,  we  have  yet  preserved  our 
Isonor,  and  no  one  need  blush  for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
I  have  lost  this  battle  because  my  force  was  too  small. 

"  I  again  repeat  that  I  am  not  responsible  for  this,  and 
I  Sly  it  with  the  earnestness  of  a  General  who  feels  in  his 
heart  the  loss  of  every  brave  man  who  has  been  needlessly 
sacrifced  to-day.  I  still  hope  to  retrieve  our  fortunes; 
but  to  do  this  the  Government  must  view  the  matter  in 
the  sarte  earnest  light  that  I  do.  You  must  send  me  very 
large  r«-enforcements,  and  send  them  at  once.  I  shall 
draw  batk  to  this  side  of  the  Chickahominy,  and  think  I 
can  withdraw  all  our  material.  Please  understand  that  in 
this  battle  we  have  lost  nothing  but  men,  and  those  the 
best  we  haxe. 

"  In  add'tion  to  what  I  have  already  said,  I  only  wish 
to  say  to  th*  President  that  I  think  he  is  wrong  in  re- 
garding me  at.  ungenerous  when  I  said  that  my  force  was 
too  weak.  I  merely  intimated  a  truth  which  to-day  has 
been  too  plainl}  proved.  If,  at  this  instant,  I  could  dis- 
pose of  ten  thouvand  fresh  men,  I  could  gain  the  victory 
to-morrow.  ^ 

"  I  know  that  a  few  thousand  more  men  would  have 


362  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

changed  this  battle  from  a  defeat  to  a  victory.  As  it  is, 
the  Government  must  not  and  can  not  hold  me  responsible 
for  the  result. 

"I  feel  too  earnestly  to-night.  I  have  seen  too  many 
dead  and  wounded  comrades  to  feel  otherwise  than  that 
the  Government  has  not  sustained  this  army.  If  you  do 
not  so  now,  the  game  is  lost. 

"  If  I  save  this  army  now,  I  tell  you  plainly  that  I  owe 
no  thanks  to  you,  or  to  any  other  persons  in  Washington. 

"  You  have  done  your  best  to  sacrifice  this  army. 

''  G.  B.  McClellan. 

"Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton." 

Telegraphic  communications  were  now  broken, 
and  no  reply  was  ever  made  to  this  immodest,  ill- 
tempered,  untrue,  and  un soldier-like  letter.  Had  \t 
been  the  work  of  a  boy  or  a  woman,  a  long-sufferirg 
and  patient  Executive  might  have  found  less  dufi- 
culty  in  forgiving  it.  Long  ago  McClellan  had  taught 
Mr.  Lincoln  the  virtue  of  his  characteristic  traits  of 
forbearance  and  patience.  In  the  heat  of  battla  and 
defeat,  some  may  be  able  to  find  an  apology  fjr  this 
letter ;  but  in  view  of  General  McClellan's  treatment 
by  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of  War,  a?  well  as 
in  view  of  his  being  a  soldier  and  a  man  responsible 
to  his  Government  and  country,  the  task  would  be 
difficult.  Without  notice  of  the  bad  charajter  of  this 
communication  the  President  wrote  on  the  same  day, 
only  correcting  one  erroneous  statement,  the  follow- 
ing reply  : — 

"Washington, June  28,  1862. 
"  Save  your  army  at  all  events.     Wil'  send  re-enforce- 
ments as  fast  as  we  can.     Of  course  th^y  can   not  reach 
you  to-day,  to-morrow,  or  next  day.     J  have  not  said  you 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  363 

were  ungenerous  for  saying  you  needed  re-enforcements; 
I  thought  you  were  ungenerous  in  assuming  that  I  did 
not  send  them  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  feel  any  misfortune 
to  you  and  your  army  quite  as  keenly  as  you  feel  it  your- 
self. If  you  have  had  a  drawn  battle  or  a  repulse,  it  is 
the  price  we  pay  for  the  enemy  not  being  in  Washington. 
We  protected  Washington  and  the  enemy  concentrated  on 
you.  Had  we  stripped  Washington,  he  would  have  been 
upon  us  before  the  troops  sent  could  have  got  to  you. 
Less  than  a  week  ago  you  notified  us  that  re-enforcements 
were  leaving  Richmond  to  come  in  front  of  us.  It  is  the 
nature  of  the  case,  and  neither  you  nor  the  Government 
is  to  blame.  Abraham  Lincoln." 

This  over-charitable  and  soothing  reply  did  not 
correct  the  evil  in  McClellan,  who  substantially  re- 
peated his  letter  of  the  28th  in  his  final  report. 

On  the  1st  of  July  Mr.  Lincoln  again  wrote  : — 

"  It  is  impossible  to  re-enforce  you  for  your  present 
emergency.  If  we  had  a  million  of  men,  we  could  not  get 
them  to  you  in  time.  We  have  not  the  men  to  send.  If 
you  are  not  strong  enough  to  face  the  enemy,  you  must 
find  a  place  of  security,  and  wait,  rest,  and  repair.  Main- 
tain your  ground  if  you  can,  but  save  the  army  at  all 
events,  even  if  you  fall  back  to  Fort  Monroe.  We  still 
have  strength  enough  in  the  country,  and  will  bring  it  out. 

"A.  Lincoln." 

So  soon  as  Genernl  McClellan  reached  the  James 
River  he  began  to  pour  in  his  complaints  and  de- 
mands for  more  troops.  Mr.  Lincoln  now  wrote  him 
this  remarkable  letter  (an  appeal  to  a  child,  or  what 
must  I  say,  a  military  "  crank  ?") : — 

"  Washington,  July  2,  1862. 
"  Your  dispatch  of  yesterday  induces  me  to  hope  that 
your  army  is  having  some  rest.     In  this  hope,  allow  me 


364  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  reason  with  you  for  a  moment.  When  you  ask  for 
fifty  thousand  men  to  be  promptly  sent  you,  you  surely 
labor  under  some  gross  mistake  of  fact.  Recently  you 
sent  papers  showing  your  disposal  of  forces  made  last 
spring  for  the  defense  of  Washington,  and  advising  a  re- 
turn to  that  plan.  I  find  it  included,  in  and  about  Wash- 
ington, seventy-five  thousand  men.  Now,  please  be  assured 
that  I  have  not  men  enough  to  fill  that  very  plan  by  fif- 
teen thousand.  All  of  General  Fremont's  in  the  valley, 
all  of  General  Banks's,  all  of  General  McDowell's  not  with 
you,  and  all  in  Washington,  taken  together,  do  not  exceed, 
if  they  reach,  sixty  thousand.  With  General  Wool  and 
General  Dix  added  to  those  mentioned,  I  have  not,  out- 
side of  your  army,  seventy-five  thousand  men  east  of  the 
mountains.  Thus,  the  idea  of  sending  you  fifty  thousand, 
or  any  other  considerable  forces  promptly,  is  simply  absurd. 
If,  in  your  frequent  mention  of  responsibility,  you  have  the 
impression  that  I  blame  you  for  not  doing  more  than  you 
can,  please  be  relieved  of  such  impression.  I  only  beg, 
that  in  like  manner,  you  will  not  ask  impossibilities  of 
me.  If  you  think  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  take 
Richmond  just  now,  I  do  not  ask  you  to  try  just  now. 
Save  the  army,  material,  and  personnel,  and  I  will 
strengthen  it  for  the  offensive  again  as  fast  as  I  can.  The 
Governors  of  eighteen  States  offer  me  a  new  levy  of  three 
hundred  thousand,  which  I  accept.  A.  Lincoln." 

On  the  next  day  McClellan  not  only  repeated  his 

demand  for  the  troops,  but  now  raised  the   number 

to  a  hundred  thousand,  and  on  the  4th  reiterated  the 

demand.     This    thing   could    not  be    endured    much- 

longer  ;   and  yet  the  President  wrote : — 

"  War  Department,  Washington  City,  D.  C,  \ 

"  July  4,  1862.       / 

"  I  understand  your  position  as  stated  in  your  letter, 

and  by  General  Marcy.     To  re-enforce  you  so  as  to  enable 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  365 

you  to  resume  the  offensive  within  a  month,  or  even  six 
weeks,  is  impossible.  In  addition  to  that  arrived  and  now- 
arriving  from  the  Potomac  (about  ten  thousand  men,  I 
suppose),  and  about  ten  thousand  I  hope  you  will  have 
from  Burnside  very  soon,  and  about  five  thousand  from 
Hunter  a  little  later,  I  do  not  see  how  I  can  send  you 
another  man  within  a  month.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  defensive,  for  the  present,  must  be  your  only  care. 
Save  the  army,  first,  where  you  are,  if  you  can,  and, 
secondly,  by  removal,  if  you  must.  You,  on  the  ground, 
must  be  the  judge  as  to  which  you  will  attempt,  and  of 
the  means  for  effecting  it.  I  but  give  it  as  my  opinion, 
that  with  the  aid  of  the  gun-boats  and  the  re-enforcements 
mentioned  above,  you  can  hold  your  present  position ;  pro- 
vided, and  so  long  as  you  can  keep  the  James  River  opeu 
below  you.  If  you  are  not  tolerably  confident  you  can 
keep  the  James  River  open,  you  had  better  remove  as 
soon  as  possible.  I  do  not  remember  that  you  have  ex- 
pressed any  apprehension  as  to  the  danger  of  having  your 
communications  cut  on  the  river  below  you,  yet  I  do  not 
suppose  it  can  have  escaped  your  attention. 

"  Yours,  very  truly,  A.  Lincoln. 

"  Major-General  McClellan, 

"  P.  S. — If  at  any  time  you  feel  able  to  take  the  offen- 
sive, you  are  not  restrained  from  doing  so.  A.  L." 

Here  it  was,  during  the  General's  long  days  of 
leisure  that  he  wrote  his  famous  letter  of  the  7th  of 
July,  given  in  a  former  chapter,  on  the  political 
features  and  conduct  of  the  war.  Of  this  remark- 
able performance  the  President  took  no  note,  and 
matters  went  on  in  the  same  way,  the  General  never 
ceasing  his  demand  for  troops,  and  his  expressions  of 
hopes  and  fancies  as  to  his  capture  of  Richmond,  etc. 

On  the  11th  of  July,  1862,  Halleck  had  been  put 


366  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

in  command  of  all  the  land  forces  of  the  United 
States.  General  Halleck's  operations  in  the  West 
had  placed  him  high  in  the  esteem  of  the  Adminis- 
tration, and  it  was  hoped  something  would  come  out 
of  his  general  direction  of  military  affairs.  The  day 
of  experiment  was  not  yet  passed.  The  General-in- 
Chief  also  visited  McClellan  at  Harrison's  Landing, 
but  did  not  find  things  to  his  satisfaction. 

Toward  the  close  of  July  McClellan  sent,  by 
Halleck's  suggestion,  a  considerMble  reconnoitering 
force  to  Malvern  Hill,  and  even  to  White-oak  Swamp, 
driving  or  capturing  the  few  rebels  in  the  way,  show- 
ing what  was  becoming  apparent  at  Washington,  by 
this  time,  that  General  Lee  was  turning  his  attention 
in  another  direction.  He  knew  the  character  of  the 
Federal  commander  on  the  James  River,  and  was  not 
afraid  to  leave  Richmond,  his  "  base  of  supplies,"  to 
go  on  an  expedition  toward  the  north.  He  believed 
that  if  his  movement  upon  Washington  did  not  re- 
move McClellan  entirel}^  from  the  Peninsula,  it 
would  at  least  not  draw  him  from  his  inactivity  on 
the  James. 

In  the  meantime  it  had  been  decided  at  Washins:- 
ton  that  McClellan's  army  should  be  withdrawn  from 
the  Peninsula,  without  consulting  him  about  its  pro- 
priety. But  this  was  no  less  difficult  a  matter  than 
others  had  been  in  dealing  with  General  McClellan. 
When  he  got  the  first  intimation  of  this  purpose,  he 
began  to  urge  upon  the  President  his  original  idea  of 
breaking  the  Rebellion  in  the  way  he  had  taken.  He 
still    held    that    he    should    be    re-enforced,   at  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  367 

expense  of  all  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  the  great 
struggle  made  where  he  was.  His  way  to  Richmond, 
he  maintained  yet,  was  the  true  way  to  save  Wash- 
ington and  the  Union.  Toward  the  end  of  July 
General  Halleck  ordered  him  to  remove  all  his  sick  ; 
but  he  was  in  no  hurry  even  about  this,  and  when,  at 
last,  he  was  notified  that  this  was  preparatory  to  the 
withdrawal  of  his  entire  force,  he  sent  up  a  long,  for- 
mal remonstrance.  Nor  did  he  stop  with  this.  On 
the  3d  of  August  the  order  to  evacuate  was  given, 
and  three  days  afterward  this  letter  followed  from 
Halleck : — 

"  Head-quartees  of  the  Army,  Washington,  \ 

"  August  6,  1862.        / 

"  General, — Your  telegram  of  yesterday  was  received 
this  morning,  and  I  immediately  telegraphed  a  brief  reply, 
promising  to  write  you  more  fully  by  mail, 

"  You,  General,  certainly  could  not  have  been  more 
pained  at  receiving  my  order  than  I  was  at  the  necessity 
of  issuing  it.  I  was  advised  by  high  officers,  in  whose 
judgment  I  had  great  confidence,*  to  make  the  order  im- 
mediately on  my  arrival  here,  but  I  determined  not  to  do 
so  until  I  could  learn  your  wishes  from  a  personal  inter- 
view. And  even  after  that  interview  I  tried  every  means 
in  my  power  to  avoid  withdrawing  your  army,  and  delayed 
my  decision  as  long  as  I  dared  to  delay  it. 

"  I  assure  you,  General,  it  was  not  a  hasty  and  incon- 
siderate act,  but  one  that  caused  me  more  anxious  thoughts 
than  any  other  of  my  life.  But  after  full  and  mature  con- 
sideration of  all  the  pros  and  cons,  I  was  reluctantly  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  order  must  be  issued ;  there  was 
to  my  mind  no  alternative. 

"  Allow  me  to  allude  to  a  few  of  the  facts  in  the  case. 
You  and  your  officers  at  our  interview  estimated  the 


(( 


368  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

enemy's  forces  in  and  around  Richmond  at  two  hundred 
thousand  men.  Since  then  you  and  others  report  that 
they  have  received  and  are  receiviug  large  re-enforce- 
ments from  the  South.  General  Pope's  army,  covering 
Washington,  is  only  about  forty  thousand.  Your  effective 
force  is  only  about  ninety  thousand.  You  are  thirty  miles 
from  Richmond,  and  General  Pope  eighty  or  ninety,  with 
the  enemy  directly  between  you,  ready  to  fall  with  his  superior 
numbers  upon  one  or  the  other  as  he  may  elect ;  neither  can 
re-enforce  the  other  in  case  of  such  an  attack. 

"  If  General  Pope's  army  be  diminished  to  re-enforce 
you,  Washington,  Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania,  would  be 
left  uncovered  and  exposed.  If  your  force  be  reduced  to 
strengthen  Pope,  you  would  be  too  weak  to  even  hold  the 
position  you  now  occupy  should  the  enemy  turn  round 
and  attack  you  in  full  force.  In  other  words,  the  old 
Army  of  the  Potomac  is  split  into  two  parts,  with  the  en- 
tire force  of  the  enemy  directly  between  them.  They  can 
not  be  united  by  land  without  exposing  both  to  destruc- 
tion, and  yet  they  must  be  united.  To  send  Pope's 
forces  by  water  to  the  Peninsula,  is  under  present  cir- 
cumstances a  military  impossibility.  The  only  alternative 
is  to  send  the  forces  on  the  Peninsula  to  some  point  by 
water,  say  Fredericksburg,  where  the  two  armies  can 
be  united. 

"  Let  me  now  allude  to  some  of  the  objections  which 
you  have  urged  :  You  say  that  the  withdrawal  from  the 
present  position  will  causB  the  certain  demoralization  of 
the  army,  '  which  is  now  in  excellent  discipline  and 
condition.' 

"  I  can  not  understand  why  a  simple  change  of  position 
to  a  new  and  by  no  means  distant  base  will  demoralize  an 
army  in  excellent  discipline,  unless  the  officers  themselves 
assist  in  that  demoralization,  which  I  am  satisfied  they 
will  not. 

"Your  change  of  front,   from   your   extreme  right  at 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  369 

Hanover  Court  House  to  your  present  position,  was  over 
thirty  miles,  but  I  have  not  heard  that  it  demoralized 
your  troops,  notwithstanding  the  severe  losses  they  sus- 
tained in  effecting  it. 

"  A  new  base  on  the  Rappahannock  at  Fredericksburg 
brings  you  within  about  sixty  miles  of  Richmond,  and 
secures  a  re-enforcement  of  forty  or  fifty  thousand  fresh 
and  disciplined  troops. 

"  The  change  with  such  advantages  will,  I  think,  if 
properly  represented  to  your  army,  encourage  rather  than 
demoralize  your  troops.  Moreover,  you  yourself  suggested 
that  a  junction  might  be  effected  at  Yorktown,  but  that  a 
flank  march  across  the  isthmus  would  be  more  hazardous 
than  to  retire  to  Fort  Monroe. 

"  You  will  remember  that  Yorktown  is  two  or  three 
miles  further  than  Fredericksburg  is.  Besides,  the  latter 
is  between  Richmond  and  Washington,  and  covers  Wash- 
ington from  any  attack  of  the  enemy. 

"  The  political  efiect  of  the  withdrawal  may  at  first  be 
unfavorable;  but  I  think  the  public  are  beginning  to 
understand  its  necessity,  and  that  they  will  have  much 
more  confidence  in  a  united  army  than  in  its  separated 
fragments. 

"  But  you  will  reply,  why  not  re-enforce  me  here,  so 
that  I  can  strike  Richmond  from  my  present  position? 
To  do  this,  you  said,  at  our  interview,  that  you  required 
thirty  thousand  additional  troops.  I  told  you  that  it  was 
impossible  to  give  you  so  many.  You  finally  thought  you 
would  have  *  some  chance '  of  success  with  twenty  thou- 
sand. But  you  afterwards  telegraphed  me  that  you  would 
require  thirty-five  thousand,  as  the  enemy  was  being 
largely  re-enforced. 

*•  If  your  estimate  of  the  enemy's  strength  was  correct, 
your  requisition  was  perfectly  reasonable  ;  but  it  was  ut- 
terly impossible  to  fill  it  until  new  troops  could  be  en- 
listed and  organized,  which  would  require  several  weeks. 

24-Q 


370  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"  To  keep  your  army  in  its  present  position  until  it 
could  be  so  re-enforced  would  almost  destroy  it  in  that 
climate. 

"  The  months  of  August  and  September  are  almost 
fatal  to  whites  who  live  on  that  part  of  the  James  River; 
and  even  after  you  received  the  re-enforcement  asked  for, 
you  admitted  that  you  must  reduce  Fort  Darling  and  the 
river  batteries  before  you  could  advance  on  Richmond. 

"  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  reduction  of  these 
fortifications  would  not  require  considerable  time,  perhaps 
as  much  as  those  at  Yorktown. 

"This  delay  might  not  only  be  fatal  to  the  health  of 
your  army,  but  in  the  meantime  General  Pope's  forces 
Would  be  exposed  to  the  heavy  blows  of  the  enemy  with-^ 
out  the  slightest  hope  of  assistance  from  you. 

"  In  regard  to  the  demoralizing  effect  of  a  withdrawal 
from  the  Peninsula  to  the  Rappahannock,  I  must  remark 
that  a  large  number  of  your  highest  officers,  indeed,  a 
majority  of  those  whose  opinions  have  been  reported  to 
me,  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  movement.  Even  several 
of  those  who  originally  advocated  the  line  of  the  Penin- 
sula now  advise  its  abandonment. 

"  I  have  not  inquired,  and  do  not  wish  to  know,, 
by  whose  advice  or  for  what  reasons  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  was  separated  into  two  parts,  with  the  enemy  be- 
tween them.     I  must  take  things  as  I  find  them. 

"  I  find  the  forces  divided,  and  I  wish  to  unite  them. 
Only  one  feasible  plan  has  been  presented  for  doing  this. 
If  you,  or  any  one  else,  had  presented  a  better  plan,  I 
certainly  should  have  adopted  it.  But  all  of  your  plans 
require  re-enforcements  which  it  is  impossible  to  give  you.. 
It  is  very  easy  to  ask  for  re-enforcements,  but  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  give  them  when  you  have  no  disposable  troops  at 
your  command. 

"I  have  written  very  plainly  as  I  understand  the  case, 
and  I  hope  you  will  give  me  credit  for  having  fully  con- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  371 

sidered  the  matter,  although  I    may  have  arrived  at  very 
different  conclusions  from  your  own. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  W.  H.  Halleck,  General-in-Chief 
"  Major-General  G.  B.  McClellan,  Commanding,  etc.,  Berkeley,  Va." 

Still  McClellan  delayed,  hoping  that  he  might 
bring  about  a  countermanding  of  the  order.  This 
cutting  letter  did  not  move  him.  On  the  9th,  Gen- 
eral Halleck  telegraphed  that  he  must  send  re- 
enforcements  to  Pope,  and  notified  him  that  his  con- 
duct was  not  satisfactory.  Then  Halleck  accused 
him  of  willful  and  determined  disobedience,  and  told 
him  that  he  would  have  to  explain.  And  after  all 
of  this  he  resisted,  not  leaviug  Fortress  Monroe  until 
the  23d  of  August. 

At  last,  however,  the  fatal  "Peninsular  Campaign" 
had  ended.  Little  substantial  had  been  gained,  and 
much  had  been  lost.  Mr.  Lincoln's  way  to  Rich- 
mond and  the  main  strength  of  the  rebel  war  power 
was  the  right  way,  but  he  had  permitted  himself  to 
give  up  to  this  "  Peninsular  "  scheme  of  McClellan's, 
and  was  to  some  extent  responsible  for  it.  It  was  a 
great  error,  and  no  error  was  ever  more  poorly  ex- 
ecuted. Before  Yorktown  McClellan,  who  had  long 
ago  on  the  Potomac  received  the  name  of  "  The 
Great  Unready,"  tarried  until  Johnston  came,  and 
the  small  rebel  force  wholly  unable  to  cope  with 
him  began  to  gather  between  him  and  Richmond. 
At  the  Chickahominy  he  waited  again  until  Davis 
had  gathered  his  new  conscripts,  and  Lee  had  an 
army  before  him  which  he  imagined  large  enough  to 


372  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

swallow  him  at  a  single  gulp.  He  was  within  four 
miles  of  Richmond  and  might  have  taken  it  at  any 
time  early  in  the  campaign,  and  even  after  the  be- 
ginning of  the  "  seven  days'  battles."  But  he  chose 
to  give  up  what  he  had  gained,  and  his  generals  con- 
ducted the  fighting  and  retreating  as  best  they  could. 
The  campaign  had  no  mitigating  circumstances.  It 
was  a  national  calamity.  Perhaps  no  soldier  bearing 
the  title  of  General  could  have  done  worse,  and  cer- 
tainly no  other  could  have  so  wearied,  fretted,  and 
tried  the  patience  of  an  all-forgiving  and  charitable 
President  and  people.  With  the  termination  of  this 
sad,  worthless  campaign,  should  have  ended  Gen- 
eral McClellan's  military  career.  And  to  say  this 
much  is  a  stretch  of  historic  charity,  if  there  can 
be  such. 

Before  finally  leaving  this  "Peninsular  Cam- 
paign" a  few  words  should,  perhaps,  be  written 
touching  the  wisdom  of  withdrawing  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  from  the  position  it  occupied  on  the  James 
River,  but  without  the  desire  to  discuss  this  point  in 
its  various  aspects.  Especially  after  reaching  the 
Peninsula,  General  McClellan  always  held  that 
Washington  could  be  as  well  defended  from  that  re- 
mote locality  as  from  the  position  he  so  long  and 
quietly  occupied  on  the  Potomac  in  its  front ;  and 
that  at  or  near  Richmond  was  the  place  to  fight  and 
end  the  Rebellion.  Before  the  army  was  taken  down 
to  the  Peninsula,  the  Administration  was  right  and 
General  McClellan  was  wrong  about  the  way  to  Rich- 
mond and  the  force  it  represented.     As  Mr.  Lincoln 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  373 

said,  if  the  great  battles  had  to  be  fought  there  it  was 
as  well  certainly  to  avoid  the  time  and  the  vast  ex- 
pense of  transferring  the  army  by  water  to  the  sickly 
tide-water  region  of  Virginia,  and  move  directly  on 
by  Manassas,  as  it  had  begun  to  do  where  its  vast 
materials  were  collected,  and  where  there  would  be 
no  division  of  its  strength  for  the  protection  of  the 
Capital.  Thus  far  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  better  Gen- 
eral, but  after  he  had  placed  McClellan  on  the  Penin- 
sula, the  recall  of  his  army  to  Washington  was  of  a 
doubtful  propriety,  no  matter  what  the  emergency 
should  be.  With  an  able  and  energetic  commander 
the  Armv  of  the  Potomac  then  at  Harrison's  Land- 
ing,  without  re-enforcements,  could,  on  the  three  last 
days  of  July,  have  taken  Richmond,  and  utterly  de- 
stroyed every  reliable  source  of  supplies  for  the  rebel 
army.  With  this  force  of  ninety  thousand  men  in 
its  rear  and  fifty  thousand  in  its  front,  there  could 
have  been  no  doubt  about  the  destiny  of  General 
Lee's  army,  by  the  1st  of  September. 

The  army  on  the  Peninsula  only  wanted  a  good 
general.  If  it  had  had  a  daring  and  able  leader  at 
Malvern  Hill,  the  destruction  of  the  rebel  force  in 
Virginia  and  the  capture  of  Richmond  would  have 
been  reasonably  certain.  And  General  John  B.  Ma- 
gruder  said  that  if  such  an  attack  as  it  was  capable  of 
had  been  made  on  the  rebel  force  south  of  the  Chick- 
ahominy  on  the  26th  of  June,  there  was  nothing  to 
hinder  it  taking  Richmond  and  turning,  from  the 
works  there,  upon  the  rear  of  an  army  always  weaker 
than  itself.     From  several  other  favorable  points  this 


374  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

subject  might  be  viewed;  and,  at  all  events,  while 
the  grounds  of  unanimity  of  opinion  for  the  substi- 
tution of  a  new  commander  may  be  undisputed,  the 
propriety  of  removing  the  army  from  the  Peninsula 
may  well  remain  a  matter  of  doubt. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  375 


CHAPTE^R  XVI. 

1862— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— GENERAL  POPE— CEDAR 
MOUNTAIN— GAINESVILLE— SECOND  BULL  RUN— CHAN- 
TILLY— McCLELLAN'S  HAND— THREE  HUNDRED  THOU^ 
SAND  MORE!— LEE  IN  MARYLAND— HARPER'S  FERRY- 
SOUTH  MOUNTAIN— ANTIETAM— LINCOLN  AND  Mc- 
CLELLAN— "SEEKS  QUIET  AND  REPOSE"  AT  LAST. 

LATE  in  June,  1862,  General  John  Pope  was 
brought  from  the  Mississippi  Valley,  where  he 
had  characterized  himself  as  a  daring  and  able  officer, 
and  placed  in  command  of  the  force  in  the  field  in 
front  of  Washington.  This  force  consisted  mainly 
of  the  three  armies  under  Irwin  McDowell,  N.  P. 
Banks,  and  Franz  Sigel,  the  latter  having  taken  the 
position  recently  resigned  by  General  Fremont. 
From  the  outset  Pope  exhibited  a  degree  of  activity 
which  was  unusual  on  the  Potomac,  and  in  this 
spirit  he  never  flagged  throughout  his  brief  and 
tragic  career  in  Virginia ;  although  it  is,  perhaps, 
true  that  on  assuming  the  command  there  was  an  air 
of  bluster  and  brag  about  his  proceedings  hardly 
becoming  a  soldier  or  a  man  of  discretion.  At  all 
events,  a  general  order  or  address  issued  by  him 
after  assuming  the  command,  on  the  14th  of  July, 
was  quite  offensive  to  some  of  the  Eastern  Generals, 
and  especially  to  George  B.  McClellan,  who  had  yet 


376  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

been  distinguished  for  little  else  than  inactivity. 
This  address  was  not  issued  by  General  Pope  until 
he  had  spent  two  weeks  in  studying  the  condition 
and  character  of  the  Army  of  Virginia,  as  the  com- 
mand was  designated.  As  he  had  passed  among 
officers  and  men  he  had  been  startled  by  many  ex- 
pressions, such  as  "  lines  of  retreat,"  "  bases  of  sup- 
plies," "  strategic  points,"  "  strong  positions  for 
defense,"  etc.,  to  which  he  had  been  unused  in  the 
West.  He  took  occasion  to  note  these  things  in  the 
address,  and  criticising  them  sharply,  requested  that 
they  be  dropped  from  the  thoughts,  as  they  certainly 
should  be  from  the  operations,  of  the  army  in  the 
future.  McClellan  considered  himself  mainly  affected 
by  this  thrust,  although  it  was  a  long  way  over  the 
shoulders  of  Banks  and  McDowell,  and  in  this  sup- 
posed hurt  of  McClellan's  began  the  misfortunes 
which  led  to  the  utter  failure  of  Pope's  efforts,  of 
his  defeat,  and  sudden  resignation  of  the  command. 
Pope,  at  once,  favored  a  policy  that  would  divert  a 
part  of  the  rebel  force  from  McClellan,  and  wrote  to 
the  latter  that  he  was  ready  and  anxious  to  co-oper- 
ate with  him,  but  the  answer  he  got  was  not  cheering 
to  Pope ;  and  then,  too,  McClellan  was  at  that  very 
time  retreating  to  Harrison's  Landing,  and  putting 
co-operation  out  of  the  question.  Pope  began  now 
to  see  difficulties  which  he  could  not  overcome,  and 
believing  that  the  case  demanded  it,  desired  to  be 
relieved  of  the  command.  But  this  not  being  granted 
he  entered  with  remarkable  activity  upon  the  work 
before  him. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  377 

At  this  time  it  was  that  the  rebel  authorities  de- 
cided upon  two  great  raids  toward  the  North,  one 
under  Bragg,  akeady  described,  and  the  Other  under 
Lee,  into  Maryland  and,  perhaps,  Pennsylvania.  In 
fact,  they  were  now  going  under  General  Lee  to 
Philadelphia  to  dictate  terms  of  peace  in  Indepen- 
dence Hall.  So  they  openly  declared  after  entering 
Maryland.  Lee  had  discovered  the  character  of  Mc- 
Clellan,  and  believed  that  he  could  do  all  this  work, 
including  the  capture  of  Washington,  while  the  fault- 
finding and  inactive  Federal  General  remained  quiet 
on  the  James  River,  within  twenty-five  or  thirty 
miles  of  Richmond.  McClellan  was  not  his  equal  as 
a  soldier,  and  of  this  fact  he  was  now  going  to  make 
good  use. 

Pope  had  now  pushed  far  south  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock, and  on  the  10th  of  August  his  advance  under 
General  Banks  was  met  by  Stonewall  Jackson  at 
Slaughter's  or  Cedar  Mountain,  and  after  a  severe 
fight,  was  whipped.  Pope  now  discovered  the  de- 
signs of  Lee,  and  made  a  Herculean  effort  to  thwart 
them,  but  in  vain.  He  fell  back  rapidly  beyond  the 
Rappahannock  into  the  neighborhood  of  Manassas 
Junction.  He  was  fortunate  to  discover  in  good  time 
Lee's  intention  to  turn  his  right,  and  before  he  could 
receive  aid  from  the  tardy,  stubborn,  and  dissatisfied 
McClellan,  cut  him  off  from  Washington  and  crush 
him.  But  his  knowledge  of  Lee's  purpose  he  was 
unable,  by  the  incompetency  or  treachery  of  some  of 
his  officers,  to  turn  to  good  account.  Longstreet,  he 
knew,  was   coming  through  Thoroughfare   Gap,  and 


378  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

although  he  sent  a  force  sufficient  to  intercept  him 
and  hold  him  at  bay  until  he  could  fall  upon  Jackson 
and  destroy  him  by  main  force,  his  order  was  not 
executed.  Still  on  the  29th  he  assailed  Jackson  at 
Gainesville  in  a  desperate  battle  which  closed  with 
the  day,  and  in  which  he  saw  the  utter  hopelessness 
of  depending  on  the  aid  from  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, upon  which  he  had  based  all  his  operations,  or 
even  for  such  supplies  and  assistance  as  he  should 
have  received  from  Washington.  On  the  following 
day  the  battle  was  renewed.  In  the  meantime  Long- 
street,  who  had  met  no  impediment,  had  come  up. 
The  bloody  battle  fought  on  this  day  was  called 
Second  Bull  Run  or  Manassas.  That  night  the 
beaten  army  of  the  Union  fell  back  in  good  order 
towards  Washington. 

Lee  now  sent  Jackson  to  fall  on  Pope's  right 
flank,  but  Pope  was  aware  of  the  design  and  pro- 
vided for  it  the  best  he  could.  On  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember, toward  evening,  the  opposing  armies  met 
again  at  Chantilly,  in  the  rear  and  to  the  right  of 
Centerville.  In  this  struggle  the  rebels  were  checked, 
but  the  losses  were  very  heavy  on  the  Union  side. 
Among  the  brave  men  who  fell  here  were  General 
Philip  Kearny  and  General  Isaac  J.  Stevens.  Pope 
now  retreated  to  the  fortifications  above  Alexandria, 
and  at  once  resigned  his  command. 

Before  these  battles,  McClellan  -had  arrived  at 
Washington,  and  strangely  enough  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  whole  business  of  forwarding  supplies 
and  troops  to  Pope,  his  head-quarters  being  at  Alex- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  379 

andria.     His  paralyzing  touch  was  felt  again  on  both 
sides  of  the  Potomac,  and  so  utterly  evil  and  demor- 
alizing had  been  his  influence  that  the  President  wms 
forced  to  ask  him  to  appeal  to  the  troops  formerly  under 
him  to  go  cheerfully  and  bravely  to  the  support  of 
Pope,  the  support  of  the  Nation.     And  so,  he  wrote  to 
his  favorite  Fitz  John  Porter :  "  I  ask  you  for  my  sake, 
that  of  the  country,  and  the  old  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
that  you  and  all  my  friends  will  lend  the  fullest  and 
most  cordial  co-operation  to  General  Pope  in  all  the 
operations  now  going  on."     In  all  this  rebel  struggle 
to  ruin  the  country  no  such  a  pitiable  and  shameful 
picture  is  hinted  at  as  is  seen  in  McClellan's  letter 
to  Porter.     It  points  certainly  to  the  dangers  to  the 
Republic,  from  the  army,  which  have  been  so  much 
mooted  by  the  class  of  politicians  to  which  General 
McClellan  belonged,  and  of  which  he  himself  furnishes 
the    only    example    in   the   history   of  the  country. 
For  this  letter  and  the  state  of  affairs  which  made  it 
possible,  patriotism  at  least  can  have  only  words  of 
abhorrence   and   condemnation.     From   the   day  Mc- 
Clellan first  began  to  deal  with  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac to  the  close  of  his  career  in  the  service  of  the 
Government  his  whole  influence  had  been  apparently 
directed  to  one  purpose,  that  of  ingratiating  himself, 
of  placing  himself  before  and   above   the   authorities 
of  the    Government,  and   hence  of  the   Government 
itself.     He  hild  early  said  that  the  confidence  of  the 
army  in  its  general  was  better  than  many  victories; 
and   his   constant   contention  with  and  opposition  to 
the  Government  authorities  in  plans  and  principles  he 


380  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

carefully  construed  to  the  interest  of  the  army.  The 
long  series  of  dispatches  between  him  and  General 
Halleck,  from  his  post  at  Alexandria,  and  that  of  the 
General-in-Chief  in  Wnshiiigton,  it  is  difficult  to  study 
with  equanimity  at  this  remote  period. 

In  the  midst  of  an  almost  unparalleled  excitement 
at  Washington,  when  even  the  whereabouts  of  Pope's 
army  was  unknown,  he  stops  to  present  to  Halleck 
the  stupendous  demand,  ever  first  with  him:  "Please 
inform  me  at  once  what  my  position  is."  "What  are 
my  orders  and  authority?"  were  the  things  of  first 
moment.  When  General  Pope  urged  stores  to  be 
sent  on,  he  said :  "  Tell  General  Pope  when  he  sends 
forward  a  cavalry  escort,  the  trains  will  be  loaded  at 
once."  When  Pope  begged  for  ammunition,  he  an- 
swered: "I  know  nothing  of  the  calibers  of  Pope's 
artillery."  And  at  last  he  dispatched  to  the  Presi- 
dent that  he  was  quite  clear  on  two  points,  namely: 
that  they  ought  to  open  communication  with  Pope,  or 
they  ought  to  let  Poj)e  get  out  of  the  scrape  into 
which  he  had  got  the  best  way  he  could,  and  use  all 
their  means  to  secure  Washington.  "Let  Pope  get 
out  of  his  scrape !"  This  was  too  much  for  the 
sorely  tried  Lincoln.  Pope's  cause  was  his  cause, 
was  the  cause  of  the  Republic,  of  all  the  people.  But 
this  supremely  selfish  and  incompetent  man  had  the 
advantage  over  him.  The  Head  of  the  Government 
appeared  powerless  before  his  irrecon'cilable  preten- 
sions, and  the  moment  for  casting  him  ofi"  had  not 
yet  arrived.  At  least,  so  it  seemed  to  the  hard- 
pressed  and  weary  President. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  381 

That  General  Pope  committed  no  mistakes,  it 
would  not  be  easy  to  prove,  perhaps;  but  his  rapid 
m-ovements,  zeal,  great  energy,  bravery,  and  determi- 
nation deserved  a  better  fate  in  Virginia,  and  that 
they  would  have  had  a  different  result  can  hardly  be 
doubted,  had  King,  Porter,  and  Franklin,  and  espe- 
cially McClelian,  done  what  it  was  their  simple  duty 
as  patriots  and  men  to  do,  and  which  he  had  every 
reason  to  believe  they  would  do. 

With  the  end  of  this  unfortunate  campaign  the 
Rebellion  rose  to  its  highest  state  of  prosperity  and 
hope.  Its  outlook  was  flattering.  From  the  poorly 
fed  and  tattered  army  the  illusion  spread  over  the 
whole  South.  The  "God  of  Hosts"  was  leading  the 
right!  Vain  dream!  Like  the  smoke  of  the  battle, 
the  delusion  passed  away.  The  defeat  of  Pope's 
army  brought  no  adequate  return;  and  the  whole 
Northern  raid  was  without  political  results.  It  in- 
spired the  North  to  do  more  of  what  it  was  so  able 
to  do.  It  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  martial  spirit 
of  the  Union.  Late  in  June  the  governors  of  seven- 
teen States  jointly  asked  the  President  to  call  for 
more  troops  to  crush  the  Rebellion,  signifying  their 
anxiety  to  co-operate  and  the  ambition  of  a  prosper- 
ous and  patriotic  people  to  engage  in  the  work  in 
which  they  all  had  an  equal  interest.  In  accordance 
with  this  appeal,  on  the  first  day  of  July  Mr.  Lin- 
coln called  for  three  hundred  thousand  more  troops, 
and  soon  after  a  draft  was  ordered  to  supply  any 
deficiencies  in  the  quotas  of  the  States.  In  this 
joint  action  of  the  governors,  Tennessee  was  repre- 


382  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

sented  by  Andrew  Johnson,  and  Kentucky,  by  the 
president  of  her  Military  Board.  The  resources  and 
power  of  the  Government  were  not  only  not  broken, 
but  were  only  put  in  the  way  of  being  called  into 
activity  to  an  adequate  extent  without  embarrass- 
ment to  a  country  in  which  war  seemed  to  feed 
prosperity. 

Still  all  this  could  not  wholly  neutralize  the  rebel 
successes  in  Virginia,  or  diminish  the  reputation  of 
brilliant  movements  and  superior  generalship.  Stone- 
wall Jackson,  during  this  raid  and  his  previous  op- 
erations in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  placed  his  name, 
beyond  dispute,  among  the  first  generals  of  his  age ; 
and  McClellan  was  not  a  match  for  the  uncomplain- 
ing and  energetic  Lee.  Pope,  a  brave  and  dashing 
soldier  of  undoubted  abilities,  wns  tried  under  ad- 
verse circumstances,  and  the  test  was  neither  just 
nor  satisfactory  to  the  country  or  himself.  Experi- 
ment and  experience  were  slowly  developing  the 
men  for  the  emergency. 

As  Pope's  army  returned  broken  and  leaderless 
to  Washington,  there  was  a  systematic  effort  made 
to  restore  McClellan  to  the  command.  A  political 
significance  began  to  be  attached  to  McClellan's 
course,  and  the  President  did  not  then  see  fit  to  ig- 
nore it.  The  partisan  generals  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  began  to  attribute  Pope's  defeat  to  his  own 
rashness,  "presumption,  and  incapacity,"  losing  sight 
of  his  unaided  and  solitary  struggle  almost  in  view 
of  ample  re-enforcements  and  supplies,  and  holding 
out  the  fancy  that  all  would   again   be  well  in   the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  383 

reinstating  of  McCIellan.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  bewil- 
dered and  oppressed.  Something  was  to  be  done  at 
once.  With  a  heavy  heart,  hoping  that  good  would 
come,  he  submitted  in  distrust  to  what  seemed  to  be 
a  necessity,  and  on  the  second  day  of  September, 
McCIellan  was  again  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac. 

Lee,  on  the  day  after  the  last  battle  with  Pope, 
began  his  march  towards  Maryland,  crossing  the  Po- 
tomac at  Point  of  Rocks  on  the  5th  of  September, 
and  moving  rapidly  to  Frederick.  Here,  on  the  8th, 
he  issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  State.  This 
address  was  in  the  common  tone  of  such  productions 
on  the  part  of  rebel  generals,  and  in  this  case  espe- 
cially was  almost  destitute  of  truth  or  honesty.  It 
talked  of  the  violation  of  the  Constitution,  of  the 
usurpations  of  their  local  governments,  of  the  unlaw- 
ful dissolution  of  their  Legislature,  and  expressed 
the  belief  that  the  people  of  Maryland  possessed  too 
lofty  a  spirit  to  submit  to  such  a  Government.  If 
General  Lee  was  sincere  in  the  language  of  his  proc- 
lamation, he  was  not  sane.  The  privileges  which 
had  been  taken  from  the  disloyal  people  of  Mary- 
land, had  without  a  scruple  and  with  great  severity 
been  denied  the  loyal,  or  even  those  remotely  sus- 
pected of  loyalty,  in  the  South.  How  could  a  sane 
man  sincerely  talk  of  infringing  the  Constitution  in 
dealing  with  traitors  to  it,  who  was  the  military  leader 
of  an  organized  effort  to  overthrow  utterly  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  benign  Government  based  upon  it? 

But  the  Maryland  rebels  did  not  respond  to  this 


384  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

appeal.  They  were  willing  to  give  their  sympathy 
without  bearing  the  burdens  of  a  desperate  cause 
which  demanded  the  property  and  persons  of  its 
supporters.  Lee  was  sadly  disappointed.  He  ex- 
pected the  State  which  had  given  to  the  Rebellion 
the  song  which  most  aptly  expressed  the  deep  feel- 
ing and  hatred  of  the  day,  would  send  into  his  ranks 
on  such  an  opportunity  a  great  host  of  those  who 
had  been  stripped  of  all  their  precious  rights  by  a 
wicked  Government  which  would  not  deal  with  its 
open  and  secret  enemies  on  strictly  Constitutional 
principles.  On  this  raid  into  Maryland  Lee's  army 
did  not,  perhaps,  receive  three  hundred  recruits,  with 
all  the  efforts  put  forth  to  that  end.  The  whole 
South  was  mortified  and  disappointed.  Still  the  raid 
was  not  without  some  benefits  to  the  rebels.  Fail- 
ing, as  he  soon  saw  he  was  destined  to  do,  in  in- 
creasing the  size  of  his  army,  Lee  turned  his  atten- 
tion, as  Bragg  had  done  in  Kentucky,  to  its  commis- 
sary wants.  Not  only  did  he  supply  its  immediate 
necessities,  but  thousands  of  cattle  were  driven 
across  the  Potomac,  and  everything  of  present  or 
future  benefit  to  his  needy  troops  was  appropriated 
without  ceremony. 

On  the  7th  of  September  General  McClellan  left 
Washington,  the  advance  of  his  army  having  started 
in  pursuit  of  Lee  three  days  previously.  He  neces- 
sarily moved  slowly  and  with  caution,  not  knowing 
the  whereabouts  or  purposes  of  the  enemy,  until  he 
reached  Frederick,  on  the  12th.  Here  McClellan 
was  fortunate  enough  to  come   into  possession    of  a 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  385 

copy  of  Lee's  order  dated  only  three  days  before, 
revealing  his  designs  and  the  disposition  of  his  forces. 
This  fact  Lee  never  discovered;  but  that  the  posses- 
sion of  this  exact  and  valuable  information  greatly 
benefited  the  Union  army  does  not  so  clearly  appear. 
In  speaking  of  McClellan's  good  luck  in  finding  this 
marching  order,  W.  H.  Taylor  in  his  "  Four  Years 
with  General  Lee,"  says  : — 

"  But  what  an  advantage  did  this  fortuitous  event  give 
the  Federal  commander,  whose  heretofore  snail-like  move- 
ments were  wonderfully  accelerated  when  he  was  made 
aware  of  the  fact  of  the  division  of  our  army,  and  of  the 
small  portion  thereof  which  confronted  him.  The  God  of 
Battles  alone  knows  what  would  have  occurred  but 
for  the  singular  accident  mentioned  ;  it  is  useless  to  spec- 
ulate on  this  point,  but  certainly  the  loss  of  this  battle- 
order  constitutes  one  of  the  pivots  on  which  turned  the 
event  of  the  war." 

In  this  order  Lee  had  divided  his  army,  sending 
Stonewall  Jackson  to  cross  the  Potomac,  destroy  the 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  and  then  fall  upon 
Harper's  Ferry,  which  was  the  main  object  of  the 
entire  detachment.  The  divisions  of  McLaws,  An- 
derson, and  Walker  were  also  sent  against  Harper's 
Ferry  with  especial  instructions  as  to  the  course  to 
pursue.  The  whole  army  was  to  be  reunited  at 
Hagerstown. 

Although  McClellan's  army  now  had  in  it  a  great 
deal  of  raw  material,  new  recruits,  it  was  greatly 
superior  in  numbers  to  that  of  the  rebel  General,  and 
it  was   certainly    in   his  power  to  relieve   Harper's 

25— Q 


386  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Ferry,  and  destroy  the  divisions  of  Lafiiyette  Mc- 
Laws  and  R.  H.  .Anderson.  This  Lee  never  couhl 
have  prevented.  However,  the  opportunity  pre- 
sented was  not  taken.  If  General  McClelhin  had  a 
reason  for  not  doing  so,  it  has  never  been  apparent, 
and  it  is  not  now  necessary  to  hunt  an  apology  for 
his  conduct.  Instead  of  moving  with  the  main  body 
of  his  army  through  Crampton's  Gap  in  South  Mount- 
ain, striking  the  Potomac  south  of  Sharpsburg,  he 
proceeded  with  commendable  rapidity  on  the  track 
of  Lee  towards  Hagerstown,  through  Turner's  Gap. 
General  W.  B.  Franklin,  who  passed  through  Cramp- 
ton's  Gap,  found  in  his  way  a  part  of  McLaws's  di- 
vision, but  it  was  not  in  his  instructions  to  look  after 
Harper's  Ferry.  On  the  14th  McClellan's  advance 
overtook  Lee  at  Turner's  Gap  in  South  Mountain. 
The  rebel  General  had  discovered  McClellan's  rapid 
movement,  and  now  seeing  that  his  stay  in  Mary- 
land must  be  brief,  was  making  every  possible  exer- 
tion to  delay  his  pursuer  until  his  plan  as  to  Har- 
per's  Ferry  should  be  carried  out  and  his  army 
united.  But  a  battle  was  inevitable.  His  position 
in  the  Gap  was  a  strong  one,  yet  when  night  closed 
the  conflict  he  saw  that  another  day  would  be  fatal 
to  his  divided  army.  When  the  morning  of  the  15th 
dawned  and  the  national  army  prepared  to  complete 
its  work,  the  enemy  had  disappeared. 

At  Crampton's  Gap.  five  or  six  miles  south,  on 
the  14th,  Franklin  had  driven  the  rebels  before  him; 
and  on  that  day  he  heard  Jackson's  guns  at  Har- 
per's Ferry,  which    surrendered   on    the   morning  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  387 

the  15th.  This  place  was  unfortunately  under  the 
command  of  Colonel  D.  S.  Miles,  who  had  somehow 
been  restored  after  his  disgrace  at  the  first  Bull 
Run.  He  had  with  him  about  fourteen  thousand 
men,  mostly  new  recruits,  who  had  never  seen  service, 
two  thousand  of  them  being  cavalry.  These  latter 
got  permission,  and  escaped,  and  the  rest,  about 
twelve  thousand,  were  surrendered,  Mile^  himself  re- 
ceiving a  mortal  wound  after  he  had  put  out  his 
white  flag. 

McClellan  now  spent  two  days  in  hunting  Lee 
and  getting  ready  for  battle.  This  was  precious 
time.  Before  noon  on  the  15th  he  knew  that 
Harper's  Ferry  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the 
rebels,  and  well  he  knew  that  Stonewall  Jackson 
would  not  tarry  long  there  to  look  after  the  spoils  or 
celebrate  the  event.  Lee  had  taken  a  position  on  the 
west  side  of  Antietam  Creek,  several  miles  from  the 
Potomac,  and  near  the  village  of  Sharpsburg;  and 
during  the  15th  and  16th  his  army  was  still  divided, 
not  over  one-half  of  it  being  with  him.  All  of  this 
McClellan  knew.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  15th,  and 
the  following  morning,  it  must  have  been  in  his 
power  to  accomplish  what  the  finding  of  Lee's  gen- 
eral order  at  Frederick  furnished  him  the  rare  op- 
portunity of  doing;  at  least,  he  could  have  com- 
pensated largely  for  his  failure  to  move  the  greater 
part  of  his  army  through  the  gaps  farther  south, 
first  intercepting  and  defeating  McLaws,  and  then 
falling  between  Lee  .'ind  the  Potomac.  There  would 
have  been  no  escape  for  the  greater  part  of  the  rebel 


388  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

army.  McClellan's  want  of  generalship  in  this  case 
is  too  apparent  to  need  investigation.  On  any 
reasonable  grounds  his  course  after  reaching  Fred- 
erick must  remain  inexplicable. 

At  the  break  of.  day  on  the  morning  of  the  17th, 
General  Hooker  began  the  bloody  battle  of  Antietam, 
attacking  the  rebel  extreme  left  from  the  position  he 
had  skillfully  and  laboriously  taken  the  evening  be- 
fore. This  remained  the  sanguinary  point  through- 
out the  day,  McClellan  resorting  to  his  peculiar 
tactics  of  sending  in  one  of  his  divisions  to  be  whipped, 
then  relieving  it  by  another  to  share  the  same 
fate.  Lee  knew  McClellan's  character,  and  as  he 
had  dallied  along,  squandering  the  time  until  his  own 
unsoldierly  error  of  dividing  his  army  in  the  face  of 
a  foe  had  been  corrected,  he  now  relied  on  the  Fed- 
eral General's  repeating  his  singular  Peninsular 
course  of  fighting  with  a  single  division.  Thus  he 
was  allowed  to  mass  his  main  strength  on  the  Federal 
right  through  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  keep 
well  at  bay,  until  darkness  closed  the  conflict,  an 
army  very  much  outnumbering  his  own.  The  Union 
troops  slept  on  their  arms  in  the  places  they  occupied 
when  the  day  closed,  believing  that  they  would  rise 
in  the  morning  to  renew  the  battle  and  end  the 
.war.  There  was  no  escape  for  Lee,  they  said.  But 
the  morning  came,  and  the  day  wore  away,  and  still 
the  commanding  General  was  silent.  Of  course  the 
rebels  were  in  no  condition  to  assail ;  they  could  only 
watch  their  superior  antngonist,  and  hope  that  his 
great  dilatoriness  would    enable    them   to    complete 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  389 

their  plans  of  escape.  Old  soldiers  who,  it  was 
said,  had  been  clamorous  for  the  reinstatement  of 
McClellan,  now  remembered  the  wonderful  inactivity 
and  tardiness  of  the  Peninsula,  and  again  felt  their 
cheeks  burn  with  shame  and  indignation  in  recount- 
ing the  experience  of  Malvern  Hill.  An  uncertain  and 
weary  night  passed,  and  the  morning  of  the  19th 
broke  with  the  amazing  news  that,  after  all,  the 
whole  rebel  army  had  been  allowed  to  escape  across 
the  Potomac. 

On  the  20th  McClellan  sent  a  small  force  after 
Lee,  but  this  was  a  mistake,  as  shown  by  its  utter 
defeat.  Lee,  well  aware  of  his  safety,  not  only 
moved  leisurely  out  toward  Winchester,  but  also 
took  occasion  to  send  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  with  his  cav- 
alry to  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  and  who  made 
a  circuit  around  McClellan  as  he  had  done  on  the 
Peninsula.  McClellan  made  extensive  preparations 
to  catch  Stuart,  but  they  amounted  to  nothing.  His 
preparations  always  prevented  his  doing  anything  in 
time.  In  these  battles  there  had  been  a  loss  in 
killed,  wounded,  and  missing  of  nearly  fifteen  thou- 
sand on  each  side.  The  rebels  called  the  battle  of 
Antietam  a  drawn  battle;  McClellan  said  that  "not 
a  single  gun  or  color  was  lost  by  our  army  in  these 
battles  ;"  but  about  all  they  did  was  to  add  some- 
thing to  the  solution  of  the  question  as  to  the  time 
yet  required  to  exhaust  the  resources  of  the  Rebellion. 
It  was  now  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt  that  the 
rebels  were  unable  to  carry  the  war  into  the  North  ; 
the  blockade  was  complete  ;  and  the  hope  of  foreign 


390  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

intervention  had  died  with  the  test  of  Ericsson's 
monitor,  and  the  settlement  of  the  Trent  case. 

McClellan  now  fell  into  his  usual  torpor;  and 
although  the  country  was  gratified  with  the  expul- 
sion of  the  rebel  army  from  Maryland,  it  was  by  no 
means  satisfied.  Enough  had  not  been  done  under 
the  circumstances.  The  President  had  submitted  to 
the  restoration  of  McClellan,  but  he  was  not  satisfied, 
and  about  the  1st  of  October  he  made  a  visit  to  the 
army.  The  result  was  that  in  less  than  a  week 
afterwards  Halleck  sent  McClellan  these  peremptory 
words  :  "'The  President  directs  that  you  cross  the 
Potomac  and  give  battle  to  the  enemy,  or  drive  him 
south.  Your  army  must  move  now,  while  the  roads 
are  good." 

But  McClellan  did  not  obey  the  order,  and  now 
was  renewed  the  wonderful  correspondence  between 
him  and  Halleck  and  the  President.  His  remarkable 
faculty  for  inventing  impossibilities,  exaggerating 
difficulties,  overestimating  his  own  achievements, 
and  overegtimating  the  forces  opposed  to  him,  was 
again  displayed  to  its  highest  perfection.  He  had 
persisted  in  representing  the  rebel  army  as  more 
numerous  than  his  own  at  Antietam,  when  it  was 
less  by  twenty  or  thirty  thousand,  at  least.  And 
that  it  was  not  twice  as  small  was  owing  to  his  inex- 
cusable delays,  when  he  knew  as  well  as  the  rebel 
General  himself  what  was  the  exact  condition  of  his 
affairs.  He  now  began  to  call  for  re-enforcements, 
and  complain,  and  in  one  way  or  another  the  Presi- 
dent's order  to  move  was  set  aside. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  391 

On  the  7th  of  October,  only  one  day  after  he  had 
been  ordered  to  cross  the  Potomac,  from  his  camp 
near  Sharpsburg  he  considered  it  his  duty  to  issue  a 
general  order  to  the  army,  which  he  had  for  some 
time  been  in  the  habit  of  calling  "  my  army,"  touch- 
ing the  President's  Emancipation  Proclamation.  This 
order  was  certainly  founded  on  the  supposition  of  his 
superior  power  and  influence  over  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac.  And  while  it  w;is  in  the  maia  expressed 
in  unobjectionable  terms,  the  propriety  of  its  appear-  * 
ance  is  extremely  doubtful.  The  mere  thought  that 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  could  be  more  devoted  to 
its  commander  than  to  the  authority  of  the  Govern- 
ment, at  such  a  crisis  especially,  would  deserve  to 
bring  its  memory  into  everlasting  shame.  The  order 
was  not  flattering  to  either  the  intelligence  or  patriot- 
ism of  that  army.  Yet  it  is  hard  to  believe  that 
General  McClellan  did  not  issue  this  order  under  the 
pure  conviction  that  he  would  serve  the  country  best 
by  doing  so.  Few,  perhaps,  at  this  day,  do  believe 
it.  And  yet,  this  apparently  good  and  harmless  order 
contains  this  suggestive  and  ambiguous  sentiment : 
"  The  remedy  for  political  errors,  if  any  are  com- 
mitted, is  to  be  found  only  in  the  action  of  the 
people  at  the  polls." 

It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  this  expression 
conveyed  an  idea  to  the  army  in  harmony  with  the 
already  well-known  opposition  of  McClellan  to  what 
was  termed  the  Republican  plan  of  conducting  the 
war.  McClellan  was,  perhaps,  a  "War  Democrat," 
but  his   methods  involved  less  than  those  of  many 


392  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

other  "  War  Democrats  "  and  other  varieties  of  loyal 
men,  and  left  more  to  be  reconciled  afterwards  which 
had  always  been  irreconcilable  and  always  would  re- 
main so.  That  McClellan  at  the  head  of  the  armies, 
either  with  or  without  the  backing  of  the  President 
and  all  the  loyal  people  of  every  grade,  with  his 
methods  exclusively,  or  with  theirs,  or  all  of  them 
combined,  could  ever  have  put  down  the  Rebellion  is 
hardly  a  matter  of  question  in  the  light  of  what  he 
did  do  while  he  had  such  golden  opportunities. 

At  last,  about  the  1st  of  November,  McClellan 
crossed  the  Potomac  and  moved  slowly  down  toward 
Fredericksburg.  But  he  had  now  been  tried  again 
and  again  with  a  patience  and  tolerance  which  may 
challenge  the  amazement,  as  well  as  the  admiration, 
of  the  world,  and  the  President  was  worn  out  witi 
him.  Neither  his  duty  nor  his  forbearance,  nor  the 
long-suffering  country,  could  stand  further  test,  and 
late  in  the  night  on  the  7th  of  November  an  order 
reached  him  at  Rectortown  to  turn  over  the  com- 
mand to  General  Burnside.  This  is  the  brief  and 
decisive  order  : — 

"  Head-quarters  of  the  Army,  "Washington,  D.  C,  \ 

"  November  5,  1862.         / 

"  General, — On  the  receipt  of  the  order  of  the  Presi- 
dent sent  herewith,  you  will  immediately  turn  over  your 
command  to  Major-General  Burnside,  and  repair  to  Tren-. 
ton,  N.  J.,  reporting  on  your  arrival  at  that  place  by  tele- 
graph, for  further  orders. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  W.  H.  Halleck,  General-in-Chief. 

"  Major-General  McClellan." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  393 

*'  War  Department,  Adjutant-General's  Office,  ") 
"  Washington,  November  5,  1862.         J 

"GENERAL  ORDERS  NO.  182. 

"By  direction  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  it 
is  ordered  that  Major-General  McClellan  be  relieved  from 
the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  that 
Major-General  Burnside  take  command  of  that  army. 

"  By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War. 

"E.  D.  TowNSEND,  Adjutant-General." 

This  was  one  of  the  few  important  orders  to 
General  McClellan  which  he  did  not  disobey  or  stop 
to  argue  or  quibble  over,  or  seek  to  delay.  Still  his 
method  of  obeying  was  peculiar  to  himself,  and  was 
hardly  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  a  temporary 
"  citizen "  army,  or  that  of  a  plain  republican  Gen- 
eral. At  nil  events,  it  served  to  throw  him  into  a 
more  prominent  attitude  of  opposition,  sharpen  the 
edge  of  partisan  zeal,  and  prepare  the  way  for  the 
repetition  of  the  skulking  and  disobedience  which 
disgraced  the  series  of  operations  under  Pope,  on  the 
part  of  officers  and  men  who  were  willing  to  put  a 
personal  fancy,  or  even  a  genuine  grievance,  above 
more  manly  qualities,  or  the  all-absorbing  duty  of 
the  hour,  undivided  devotion  to  the  work  of  conquer- 
ing the  Rebellion. 

McClellan  at  once  issued  a  brief  address  to  the 
army  under  him,  closing :  "  We  shall  ever  be  com- 
rades in  supporting  the  Constitution  of  our  country 
and  the  nationality  of  its  people."  The  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  this  whole  address  were  questionable. 
The  General  now  spent  three  days  in  getting  ready 
to  leave,  passing  the  last  day  in  showing  himself  in 


394  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  melodramatic  capacity  of  bidding  farewell  to 
those  to  whom  he  said  he  bore  an  inexpressible 
"  love  and  gratitude." 

In  his  speech  at  the  head-quarters  of  Fitz  John 
Porter  he  said :  "  History  will  do  justice  to  the 
deeds  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  if  the  present 
generation  does  not." 

Ah  !  no.  The  kind  of  justice  meant  in  moments 
of  that  sort  is  the  work  of  the  political  biographer,  or 
the  hero-worshiper.  It  falls  beneath  the  field  of 
history.  The  historian  would  certainly  have  little 
difficulty  in  distinguishing  between  the  army  and  its 
commanders. 

On  his  way  to  Trenton,  General  McClellan  pnssed 
through  Washington  without  stopping.  He  knew 
what  had  happened,  and  why,  and  it  was  unnecessary 
to  see  the  President  or  General  Halleck  to  find  out. 
At  Trenton  he  said  he  had  come  among  the  people 
"  to  seek  quiet  and  repose."  How  could  any  earnest, 
energetic-souled  patriot  seek  quiet  and  repose  at  such 
a  time?  These  things  were,  indeed,  not  then  to  be 
found  in  America  by  either  the  good  or  the  evil. 
It  was  said  then  and  at  a  later  period  that  no  reasons 
were  given  either  to  General  McClellan  or  the  coun- 
try for  his  unceremonious  dismissal.  No  more  ap- 
parent hypocrisy  was  ever  talked  and  written  than 
this  charge  against  the  Administration.  The  men- 
tion of  it  to-day  would  be  nn  insult  to  intelligent 
people.  It  was  Lincoln's  boundless  charity  which 
withheld  the  reasons.  The  least  said  the  better  it 
was    for   this   thoroughly  and    patiently    tried,  but 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  395 

incompetent  soldier.  The  careful  reader  of  these  pnges 
need  not  be  told  why  General  McClellan  was  thus 
relieved  of  his  command,  and  took  no  further  active 
part  in  the  war.  His  "services"  can  not  be  re- 
viewed here.  He  had  furnished  him  the  most  mag- 
nificently equipped  and  powerful  army  ever  gathered 
on  the  continent,  and  with  it  could  have  moved  di- 
rectly from  W.'ishington  to  Richmond,  or  by  way  of 
the  Peninsula  even,  if  he  had  chosen  to  do  so,  instead 
of  lying  quietly  for  many  weary  months  on  the  Po- 
tomac. It  matters  not  now  to  speculate  on  the  rea- 
sons which  held  him  back  or  prevented  him  giving 
the  decisive  blow  he  was  profuse  in  promising.  With- 
out wrong  motives,  and  with  some  most  admirable 
qualifications,  he  yet  seemed  to  be  so  constituted  as 
to  render  him  totally  unfit  for  the  times  and  the 
work  put  before  him.  He  was  a  slow,  but  good  or- 
ganizer, without  traits  enabling  him  to  lead  a  large 
army  in  the  field,  and  especially  against  an  earnest 
and  able  domestic  enemy;  and  was,  perhaps,  as  des- 
titute of  the  true  elements  of  greatness  in  the  man 
or  the  soldier  as  any  American  who  has  acquired 
distinction  as  the  leader  of  a  party  or  the  general  of 
an  army.  His  appointment  was  the  greatest  calam- 
ity which  befell  the  cause  of  the  Union,  and  which 
so  greatly  deepened,  if  it  did  not  mainly  produce, 
the  dark  days  of  the  first  years  of  the  war. 

Dr.  Holland,  in  his    "  Life  of  Lincoln,"   says,  in 
great  charity  : — 

"  Tiiat  General  McClellan  loved  (liked)  power,  is  evi- 
dent; and  it  is  just  as  evident  that  it  was  not  pleasant  to 


396  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

him  to  share  it  with  any  one ;  but,  on  the  whole,  there  is 
no  evidence  that  he  was  not  a  good,  well-meaning,  and 
patriotic  man.  The  difficulty  was  that  he  was  great 
mainly  in  his  infirmities.  He  was  not  a  great  man,  nor  a 
great  general.  He  was  a  good  organizer  of  military  force, 
and  a  good  engineer ;  he  was  a  good  theorizer,  and  wrote 
good  English  ;  he  had  that  quality  of  personal  magnetism 
which  drew  the  hearts  of  his  soldiers  to  him;  but  he  was 
not  a  man  of  actioai,  of  expedients,  of  quick  judgment,  of 
dash  and  daring,  of  great,  heroic  deeds.  He  was  never 
ready.  There  were  many  evidences  that  he  held  a  theory 
of  his  own  as  to  the  mode  of  conducting  the  war,  and 
that,  independently  of  the  Government,  he  endeavored  to 
pursue  it;  but,  even  if  he  did,  his  failure  must  always  be 
regarded  as  mainly  due  to  constitutional  peculiarities  for 
which  he  was  not  responsible." 

One  of  General  McCIellan's  eulogists  m;ikes  the 
following  foolish  statement  in  speaking  of  the  Gener- 
al's habit  of  concealing  his  designs  from  the  Presi- 
dent, and  commending  him  for  so  doing: — 

"General  McCIellan's  communications  to  the  President 
were  generally  in  reply  to  inquiries  or  suggestions  from 
the  latter,  whose  restless  and  meddlesome  spirit  was  con- 
stantly moving  him  to  ask  questions,  obtrude  advice,  and 
make  comments  upon  military  matters,  which  were  as 
much  out  of  his  sphere  as  they  were  beyond  his  compre- 
hension." 

The  exact  reverse  of  this  was  true  in  every  par- 
ticular. The  great  mass  of  the  General's  communica- 
tions to  the  President  were  demands  on  his  own  part, 
fictitious  promises,  and  highly  colored  misleading  re- 
ports which  were  a  source  of  ridicule  to  the  rebels, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  397 

and  which  were  too  often  not  justified  by  the  facts. 
That  the  general  of  an  army  had  the  least  right  to 
conceal  his  designs  and  movements  from  the  Presi- 
dent, is  too  utterly  foolish  to  deserve  ridicule.  That 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  always  a  good  judge  of  the  character 
of  a  military  project  may  well  be  doubted.  Where  is 
the  soldier  or  civilian  whose  judgment  has  always 
been  above  criticism?  Where  Mr.  Lincoln's  confi- 
dence was  fixed  he  seldom  or  never  obtruded  his 
opinion,  never  out  of  place ;  although  many  of  his 
letters  to  McClellan  on  the  Peninsula  had  in  them  an 
air  of  taunting,  which  must  have  been  vexatious,  and 
were,  it  seems,  at  this  distance,  entirely  uncalled  for 
and  reprehensible.  That  Mr.  Lincoln  was  always 
right  as  to  his  methods  and  views  can  not  be  main- 
tained ;  and  the  same  may  be  true  as  to  his  dealings 
with  McClellan.  As  to  General  Halleck  it  may 
hardly  be  necessary  to  speak.  His  magisterial  habits 
were  notable;  some  of  his  theories  and  orders  were 
inexplicable ;  and  it  could  hardly  be  claimed  that 
while  he  had  many  causes  of  complaint  against  Mc- 
Clellan, the  latter  had  none  ao;ainst  him. 

The  following  little  letter  will  show  Mr.  Lincoln's 
general  method  of  dealing : — 

"  Washington,  August  29,  1862,  4.10  P.  M. 

"  Yours  of  to-day  just  received.  I  think  your  first 
alternative,  to  wit:  'to  coucentrate  all  our  available  forces 
to  open  communication  with  Pope/  is  the  right  one,  but 
I  wish  not  to  control.  That  I  now  leave  to  General  Hal- 
leck, aided  by  your  counsels.  A.  Lincoln. 

"  Major-General  McClellan." 


398  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Nothing  can  more  forcibly  and  truly  display  Mr. 
Lincoln's  general  way  of  smoothing  difficulties,  and 
his  excessive  charity  towards  others  and  lack  of  it 
for  himself  than  the  following  brief  and  remark- 
able speech  made  at  a  Union  meeting  in  Washington 
on  the  sixth  day  of  August,  1862 : — 

"Fellow-citizens, — I  believe  there  is  no  precedent 
for  my  appearing  before  you  on  this  occasion,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  there  is  no  precedent  for  your  being  here 
yourselves;  and  I  offer,  in  justification  of  myself  and  of 
you,  that,  upon  examination,  I  have  found  nothing  in  the 
Constitution  against  it.  I,  however,  have  an  impression 
that  there  are  younger  gentlemen  who  will  entertain  you 
better,  and  better  address  your  understanding  than  I  will 
or  could,  and  therefore  I  propose  but  to  detain  you  a  mo- 
ment longer. 

"I  am  very  little  inclined  on  any  occasion  to  say  any- 
thing unless  I  hope  to  produce  some  good  by  it.  The 
only  thing  I  think  of  just  now  not  likely  to  be  better 
said  by  some  one  else,  is  a  matter  in  which  we  have 
heard  some  other  persons  blamed  for  what  I  did  myself. 
There  has  been  a  very  wide-spread  attempt  to  have  a 
quarrel  between  General  ^McClellan  and  the  Secretary  of 
War.  Now,  I  occupy  a  position  that  enables  me  to  ob- 
serve, that  these  two  gentlemen  are  not  nearly  so  deep  in 
the  quarrel  as  some  pretending  to  be  their  friends.  Gen- 
eral McClellan's  attitude  is  such  that,  in  the  very  selfish- 
ness of  his  nature,  he  can  not  but  wish  to  be  successful, 
and  I  hope  he  will — and  the  Secretary  of  War  is  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  situation.  If  the  military  commanders  in 
the  field  can  not  be  successful,  not  only  the  Secretary  of 
War,  but  myself,  for  the  time  being  the  master  of  them 
both,  can  not  but  be  failures.  I  know  General  McClellan 
wishes  to  be   successful,  and   I  know  he  does  not  wish  it 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  399 

any  more  than  the  Secretary  of  War  for  him,  and  both  of 
them  together  no  more  than  I  wish  it.  Sometimes  we 
have  a  dispute  about  how  many  men  General  McClellan 
has  had,  and  those  who  would  disparage  him  say  that  he 
has  had  a  very  large  number,  and  those  who  would  dis- 
parage the  Secretary  of  War  insist  that  General  McClellan 
has  had  a  very  small  number.  The  basis  for  this  is,  there 
is  always  a  wide  difference,  and  on  this  occasion,  perhaps,  a 
wider  one  than  usual,  between  the  grand  total  on  McClel- 
lan's  rolls  and  the  men  actually  fit  for  duty ;  and  those  who 
would  disparage  him  talk  of  the  grand  total  on  paper,  and 
those  who  would  disparage  the  Secretary  of  War  talk  of 
those  at  present  fit  for  duty.  General  McClellan  has  some- 
times asked  for  things  that  the  Secretary  of  War  did  not 
give  him.  General  McClellan  is  not  to  blame  for  asking 
for  what  he  wanted  and  needed,  and  the  Secretary  of  W^ar 
is  not  to  blame  for  not  giving  when  he  had  none  to  give. 
And  I  say  here,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  Secretary  of  War 
has  withheld  no  one  thing  at  any  time  in  my  power  to  give 
him.  I  have  no  accusation  against  him.  I  believe  he  is  a 
brave  and  able  man,  and  I  stand  here,  as  justice  requires 
me  to  do,  to  take  upon  myself  what  has  been  charged  on 
the  Secretary  of  War,  as  withholding  from  him. 

"  I  have  talked  longer  than  I  expected  to  do,  and  now 
I  avail  myself  of  my  privilege  of  saying  no  more." 

The  story  of  General  McClellan,  the  troubles  of 
the  Administration  in  dealing  with  him,  and  the 
effect  in  the  progress  of  events,  constitute  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  chapters  of  American  history. 
Thus  believing,  I  have  given  the  subject  that  promi- 
nence it  appeared  to  deserve,  risking  as  much  as 
possible  under  the  restraints  of  brevity.  Without 
the  remotest  care  or  preference  as  to  General  Mc- 
Clellan's   politics,  and   but   the  most  necessary    and 


400  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

scanty  concern  about  doing  him  or  anybody  else 
either  justice  or  wrong,  I  have  written  what  I  have 
purely  with  reference  to  stating  as  nearly  as  may  be 
the  truths  of  history,  and  making  the  most  available 
inferences  therefrom.  And  I  now  confess  to  leaving 
the  subject  with  a  peculiar  sense  of  relief,  freed  from 
another  burden  and  incubus,  and  landing  beyond 
another  difficult  passage  in  the  long  journey  whose 
end  I  am  every  day  more  and  more  anxious  to  reach. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  401 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1863— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION  — GENERAL  BURNSIDE— 
FREDERICKSBURG— GENERAL  HOOKER  TRIED— CHAN- 
CELLORSVILLE— STONEWALL  JACKSON— WHERE  NOW 
STOOD  THE  "GOD  OF  BATTLES  ?"— GENERAL  MEADE 
AT  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC- 
GETTYSBURG— LEE  OUTGENERALED. 

ON  the  8th  of  November,  1862,  without  alacrity 
or  confidence,  General  Burnside  assumed  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  outlook 
was  discouraging  enough.  The  mode  of  McClellan's 
departure  had  placed  the  army  on  the  verge  of 
political  organization,  and  none  but  a  bold  and  fool- 
hardy man  could  have  undertaken  to  lead  it,  in  full 
view  of  Pope's  experience,  without  fear  of  calamitous 
consequences.  But  Burnside  was  a  man  of  action, 
and  was  able  to  place  obedience  to  orders,  and  duty, 
above  personal  considerations  or  consequences.  He 
selected  Fredericksburg  as  the  best  point  for  opera- 
tions in  the  direct  route  to  Richmond,  and  at  once 
set  about  moving  the  army  down  the  Rappahannock. 
Under  all  the  discouragements  of  the  situation  he 
went  to  work  in  an  energetic  and  manly  way ;  in  the 
first  place  organizing  his  entire  force  of  over  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men  into  three  grand  divisions  under 
Hooker,  Franklin,  and  Sumner.  The  selection  of 
these  leaders  with   the   exception  of  the   last    was, 

26-Q 


402  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

perhaps,  his  first  serious  mistake.  Still  it  would 
have  been  difficult  at  that  moment  to  escape  such  an 
error  in  that  great  army  of  splendid  fighters  but  dis- 
contented and  angry  politicians.  Lee  was  soon 
aware  of  the  designs  of  the  Union  General,  and  at 
once  moved  his  whole  force  for  the  same  point.  And 
when  Sumner's  advance  reached  Falmouth  above 
Fredericksburg,  on  the  17th  of  November,  Lee's  was 
there  in  force  enough  to  drive  it  back.  Burnside 
had  hoped  to  reach  Fredericksburg,  and  plant  him- 
self on  the  heights  with  the  Rappahannock  behind 
him,  before  Lee  could  come  down.  Even  when  he 
did  reach  the  river,  his  pontoon  train  had  not  arrived, 
and  for  a  day  or  two  of  invaluable  time,  he  was  de- 
layed on  this  account.  He  supposed  General  Hal- 
leck  was  engaged  to  have  the  pontoons  at  Fredericks- 
burg by  the  time  his  army  would  appear  there  to 
use  them,  and  Halleck  seemed  to  think  he  was  at- 
tending to  that  matter  himself.  Here  was  another 
serious  mischance  and  somebody  was  responsible  for  it. 
The  two  hostile  armies  were  now  facing  each  other, 
one  lying  on  the  heights  on  the  north  and  the  other 
on  the  corresponding  ridges  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Rappahannock.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that 
Fredericksburg  stands  down  by  the  side  of  the  Rap- 
pahannock in  the  deep  cut  made  for  that  river 
through  an  elevated  and  beautiful  plat  of  country. 

It  is  now  easy  to  see  that  after  the  two  armies 
had  taken  positions  on  these  opposite  heights  from 
which  hundreds  of  great  guns  were  ready  in  a  mo- 
ment    to    sweep    everything   from    the    intervenmg 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  403 

valley,  the  one  which  was  daring  enough  to  enter  it 
first  would  be  the  great  sufferer.  Some  time  was 
now  spent  in  preparations,  but  at  last,  on  the  night 
of  the  10th  of  December,  Burnside  began  to  liiy  his 
pontoons,  and  on  the  11th  and  12th,  having  driven 
the  rebel  sharp-shooters  from  the  town,  his  army 
crossed  the  river.  Franklin  was  on  the  left,  Sum- 
ner on  the  right,  and  Hooker  in  the  center.  Burn- 
side  had  learned  that  the  rebel  army  on  its  right, 
stretching  far  down  the  river,  was  divided  into 
two  wings  by  an  intervening  valley,  a  road  cut  for 
the  purpose  connecting  them.  Here  he  planned  for 
his  m;iin  assault.  This  was  the  left  of  his  army, 
and  unfortumitely  under  the  command  of  General 
William  B.  Franklin,  one  of  McClellan's  favorites. 
For  several  hours  on  the  morning  of  the  13th,  the 
Union  army  was  concealed  by  a  dense  fog  which 
filled  the  narrow  valley.  But  before  noon  the  sun 
broke  out,  and  the  great  army  moved  forward  to 
slaughter  and  defeat.  It  was  a  dreadful  day  to  these 
brave  soldiers,  and  the  tardy  night  came  not  too  soon 
to  end  a  hopeless  contest.  Over  eleven  hundred  of 
them  had  been  killed,  over  nine  thousand  wounded 
(nearly  half  of  all  of  them  in  Sumner's  division 
where  the  main  assault  was  not  to  be  made),  and 
many  were  put  down  as  "missing;"  so  that  nearly 
fourteen  thousand  were  counted  as  "lost"  on  the 
Union  side,  while  the  rebel  loss  was  only  about  five 
thousand  three  hundred. 

Hooker   was   opposed  to  this  battle  from  the  out- 
set, and  throughout  the  day  acted,  to  a  great  extent, 


404  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

in  accordance  with  his  feelings,  several  times  re- 
fusing or  neglecting  to  obey  the  commands  of  the 
responsible  General.  And  on  the  left,  where  the 
main  battle  was  to  be,  Franklin  failed  entirely  to 
attack  in  force  or  to  make  any  determined  effort  to 
do  the  work  assigned  to  him.  General  Meade  suc- 
ceeded, howeA^er,  in  gaining  a  favorable  position  on 
the  rebel  right,  with  five  thousand  men,  according  to 
Burnside's  plan  of  battle,  but  for  Avant  of  support 
was  finally  beaten  back  with  great  loss.  As  difficult 
and  unwise,  perhaps,  as  Avas  this  fruitless  battle,  it 
does  not  appear  that  Franklin  could  not  have  carried 
out  Burnside's  plan  to  the  letter ;  and  had  he  done 
so,  the  rebels  would  have  been  forced  to  nbnndon 
their  entire  position  on  the  ridges.  Fredericksburg 
may  be  set  down  as  one  of  those  unfortunate  events 
in  the  history  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  largely 
due  to  General  McClellan's  peculiar  discipline.  The 
propriety  of  going  into  battle  at  all  without  the 
hearty  approval  of  the  officers  on  whom  success 
mainly  depends  may  be  regarded  as  doubtful,  but 
the  Avant  of  perfect  acquiescence  in  the  plans  of  a 
general  never  can  furnish  an  apology  for  failure  on 
the  part  of  his  subordinates  to  use  the  utmost  energy 
and  skill  to  insure  success. 

On  the  14th,  General  Burnside  Avould  have  re- 
newed the  contest,  but  meeting  the  unanimous  op- 
position of  his  officers,  this  unwise  intention  was 
abandoned.  His  opportunity  Avas,  indeed,  gone,  :d- 
though  his  available  force  was  yet  equal  to  or  greater 
than   that  of   Lee.     On  the  night  of  the   15tli  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  405 

Union  army  was  withdrawn  without  loss  in  men  or 
property  to  its  former  position  on  the  north  side 
of  the  river.  W.  H.  Taylor,  a  rebel  writer,  says  that 
while  "this  was  the  most  easily  won  of  all  the  great 
battles  of  the  war,  the  allotted  task  of  the  Federal 
soldiers  exceeded  human  endeavor ;  and  no  shame  to 
them  that,  after  such  courageous  conduct,  their  efforts 
lacked  success." 

Burnside  soon  after  these  events  began  to  prepare 
for  making  another  strike  at  the  rebels ;  but  through 
the  treachery  of  some  of  his  own  officers  his  plans 
became  generally  known,  and  so  this  was  abandoned. 
Ill  a  visit  to  Washington  made  at  this  time  he  found 
that  some  of  his  officers  were  discouraging  his  plans 
and  making  serious  exciting  misrepresentations  in 
letters  to  the  President.  About  the  middle  of  Janu- 
ary he  planned  another  movement  which  the  char- 
acter of  the  weather  prevented  his  putting  into 
execution.  This  was  the  end  of  his  operations  with 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  He  drew  up  a  general 
order  concerning  the  evil  counsels  and  machinations 
in  his  army,  dismissing  from  the  service  two  briga- 
diers, John  Newton  and  W.  T.  H,  Brooks,  and  Gen- 
eral Hooker,  and  relieving  from  further  connection 
with  that  army  W,  B.  Franklin,  W.  F.  Smith,  John 
Cochrane,  and  Edward  Ferrero,  and  J.  H.  Taylor, 
the  latter  being  a  lieutenant-colonel,  and  the  others 
ranking  as  major  or  brigadier  generals.  Before  issuing 
this  order  he  submitted  it  to  the  President,  who 
taking  a  somewhat  different  view  of  the  case,  and 
concluding    that     General    Burnside    had,    perhaps, 


406  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

reached  his  highest  point  of  usefulness  in  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  relieved  him  of  the  command. 
Burnside  acted  in  this  matter  as  any  honest  and 
right-minded  patriot  would  have  done.  He  had 
taken  the  difficult  place  with  reluctance,  but  did  not 
desire  to  leave  it  at  that  time.  And  although  he 
asked  to  be  allowed  to  resign,  he  nobly  and  gener- 
ously concluded  to  serve  in  whatever  capacity  re- 
quired, considering  it  his  duty  to  submit  to  any 
course  deemed  best  for  the  country.  Tiie  fine  old 
soldier.  General  Edwin  Voss  Sumner,  resigned  at  this 
time,  and  soon  afterwards  died  ;  and  the  order  re- 
lieving General  Burnside  also  took  Franklin  from  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  All  these  things  greatly  de- 
moralized this  army.  Desertions  were  numerous, 
and  if  there  ever  was  a  time  when  the  claim  of  the 
South  to  superiority  on  the  battle-field  was  true  it 
was  in  Virginia  at  this  moment. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1863,  General  Joseph 
Hooker  assumed  the  command,  and  by  the  1st  of 
April  had,  to  a  great  extent,  restored  the  organiza- 
tion and  discipline  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  But 
his  appointment  was  a  mistake,  and  tended  only  to 
strengthen  the  conviction  that  the  cnse  of  that  brave 
army  was  hopeless.  Discovering  that  Lee  had  de- 
tached Longs treet  to  the  south  side  of  the  James 
River,  reducing  his  effective  force  at  Fredericksburg 
to  about  sixty  thousand  men,  and  finding  his  own 
army  numbering  twice  as  many,  Hooker,  who  re;illy 
preferred  fighting  to  inaction,  believed  the  time  had 
come  for  striking  the  enemy.     His  plan  was  to  send 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  407 

General  John  Sedgwick  with  his  corps  to  make  a 
feint  on  the  Rappahannock  below  the  town,  while 
the  great  body  of  his  army  should  pass  up  the  river 
out  of  sight  of  the  rebels,  and  crossing  that  stream 
and  the  Rapidan,  should  clear  the  rebel  outposts, 
open  communications  with  his  supplies  by  the  lower 
fords,  and  by  way  of  Chancellorsville  fall  upon  Lee's 
left  and  rear  in  position  where  Burnside  had  left  him. 
By  the  night  of  the  30th  of  April,  he  had  with  com- 
mendable skill  succeeded  in  his  preparatory  move- 
ments, locating  his  head-quarters  at  the  solitary  house 
called  Chancellorsville.  Up  to  this  time  he  had  carried 
out  his  designs  to  the  letter  and  had  outgeneraled 
Lee,  if  there  could  be  any  virtue  in  saying  such  a 
thing  in  view  of  what  followed.  He  had  a  large  cav- 
alry force  of  ten  or  twelve  thousand  men  under  the 
general  command  of  George  D.  Stoneman.  With  this 
he  hoped  to  cut  Lee's  communications  with  Rich- 
mond, and  otherwise  greatly  advance  his  own  plans 
for  the  utter  ruin  of  the  enemy.  It  may  as  well  be 
said  here  that  Stoneman's  magnificent  opportunity 
was  turned  to  poor  account.  A  part  of  his  force  did, 
indeed,  enter  the  rebel  fortifications  near  Richmond ; 
and  he  gathered  some  booty  and  a,  few  prisoners,  but 
this  fine  cavalry  corps,  more  than  three  times  as  great 
as  the  rebel  cavalry,  did  in  the  long  run  little  good 
for  their  own  cause,  and  little  injury  to  that  of  the 
foe.  The  only  favorable  thing  which  can  or  need  be 
said  of  Stoneman's  part  of  Hooker's  utter  failure,  is 
that  it  was  no  worse  mannged  and  less  beneficial  to 
the  country  than  Hooker's  own  operations. 


408  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

By  the  afternoon  of  May  1st  Hooker,  with  seventy- 
five  thousand  men,  had  reached  the  open  country  be- 
yond the  dense,  broken  wood,  called  the  Wilderness, 
and  seemed  to  be  in  a  fair  way  to  the  realization  of 
his  highest  hopes.  But  just  here  his  disaster  began. 
He  suddenly  took  the  unmilitary  notion  that  the 
Wilderness  was  a  bad  thing  to  have  in  his  rear,  and 
amidst  the  protests  of  Hancock  and  several  other 
officers,  ordered  the  army  back  to  Chancellorsviile, 
where  he  issued  a  bombastic  order  or  address,  made 
of  congratulations  for  the  successful  achievements  of 
the  three  preceding  days,  and  boasts  as  to  the  destiny 
awaiting  Lee  at  his  hands.  Instead  of  carrying  out 
his  original  and  correct  plan  of  moving  on  to  find  and 
whip  the  rebels,  he  now  strangely  assumed  the  defen- 
sive, and  in  a  poorly  selected  position  at  Chancellors- 
viile, awaited  to  be  attacked.  He  did  not  have  long 
to  wait;  for  Lee  and  Jackson,  numerically  much 
weaker,  taking  advantage  of  the  Wilderness,  which 
he  so  much  feared,  were  preparing  to  strike  him  both 
in  front  and  rear.  Leaving  ten  thousand  of  his  men 
under  Early  in  the  position  at  Fredericksburg,  Lee 
had  set  out  to  meet  the  Federal  army.  Contrary  to 
military  principles,  and  sound  sense  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  Lee  divided  his  force,  sending  twenty- 
five  thousand  men  under  Stonewall  Jackson  to 
gain  the  rear  of  Hooker's  position.  Heartily  con- 
curring, and  concealed  by  the  "  Wilderness "  in  his 
movement,  Jackson  succeeded  in  making  his  point, 
and  late  in  the  evening,  Saturday,  May  2d,  surprised 
and  utterly  routed  Howard's  whole  corps.     But  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  409 

nature  of  the  ground  and  tangled  woods,  and  their 
extraordinary  success  somewhat  demoralized  and 
confused  the  rebels,  and  night  coming  on,  they  were 
attacked  and  repulsed  by  Sickles  and  Pleasonton, 
meeting  just  after  night  the  greatest  misfortune  which 
had  yet  befallen  them  on  the  field,  in  the  death  of 
Stonewall  Jackson.  Returning  with  his  staff  from 
viewing  the  ground  before  him,  in  the  confusion  and 
darkness,  he  was  fired  upon  by  some  of  A.  P.  Hill's 
men,  and  fell  from  his  horse  mortally  wounded.  In 
the  assault  made  by  the  Union  troops  at  this  moment 
he  was  ridden  over,  but  was  subsequently  found  and 
carried  from  the  field.  On  the  10th  of  M.-iy  this 
brave  and  able  soldier  died. 

That  night  Hooker  made  such  disposition  of  his 
forces  as  he  thought  best,  and  awaited  Lee's  attack 
on  Sunday  morning.  By  noon  he  had  driven  Hooker 
from  his  position  at  Chancellorsville  to  another 
nearer  the  river,  and  was  the  victor,  notwithstanding 
his  loss  of  Jackson  and  his  unequal  force.  By  this 
time  Sedgwick,  whose  activity  had  not  met  Hooker's 
expectations,  had  crossed  the  Rappahannock  below 
Fredericksburg  and  driving  Early  before  him  out  of 
the  works  where  Burnside  met  defeat,  and  having 
brought  the  greater  part  of  Gibbon's  division  from 
the  camp  at  Falmouth,  was  now  pushing  on  with 
over  twenty-five  thousand  men  to  strike  Lee's  rear. 
Ascertaining  this  state  of  affairs,  Lee  again  commit- 
ted the  unsoldierly  act  of  dividing  his  force  to  send 
a  part  of  it  against  Sedgwick.  But  what  might  a 
daring,  wide-awake    commander,  with    a    brave    and 


410  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

eager  army  not  do  in  the  face  of  such  generalship  as 
he  had  yet  encountered  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  ? 
Keeping  Hooker,  the  greater  part  of  whose  army  had 
not  been  brought  into  action,  at  bay,  Lee  turned  his 
attention  for  the  time  mainly  to  Sedgwick,  whom  he 
actually  whipped  and  drove  across  the  Rappahan- 
nock at  Banks's  Ford  on  the  night  of  the  4th. 

In  the  meantime  Hooker  had  remained  in  his  po- 
sition taken  when  driven  from  Chancellorsville  on 
Sunday.  Tuesday  was  spent  in  unimportant  skir- 
mishing, but  by  Wednesda}^,  6th,  Lee,  sufficiently  re- 
cuperated, moved  forward  to  attack  Hooker.  But 
under  cover  of  night,  the  Union  army  had  been  with- 
drawn to  the  north  side  of  the  river;  and  the  battle 
of  Chancellorsville  was  ended  in  complete  victory  to 
the  rebels  and  the  utter  failure  of  all  of  Hooker's 
boasted  plans.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  lost  in 
these  unfortunate  engagements  over  seventeen  thou- 
sand men,  of  whom  five  thousand  were  unwounded 
prisoners.  The  rebel  loss  was,  perhaps,  no  more 
than  three  or  four  thousand  less,  although  the  rebel 
authorities  systematically  misrepresented  their  losses, 
or  concealed  all  clews  to  the  facts  throughout  the 
war,  thus  involving  this  important  matter  in  perpet- 
ual obscurity. 

On  reaching  his  old  camp  at  Falmouth,  opposite 
Fredericksburg,  General  Hooker,  on  the  6th  of  May, 
perpetrated  the  greatest  of  his  insulting  farces  in  the 
shape  of  a  congratulatory  address  to  the  army.  He 
said  they  had  not  done  all  they  had  set  out  to  do, 
and  it  was  unnecessary  for  him  to  say  why,  but  one 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  411 

thing  was  certain,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  a 
profoundly  loyal  army,  was  conscious  of  its  strength, 
and  would  stand  on  its  record.  Lee  also  put  out  a 
congratulatory  order  to  his  army,  certainly  with  some 
good  ground  of  propriety,  and  quite  gallantly  gave 
the  credit  to  the  "  Only  Giver  of  victory."  It  was 
now  once  more  apparent  that  the  Great  Jehovah  was 
a  rebel,  or  at  any  rate  that  he  was  on  that  side,  and 
was  the  "  God  of  Battles." 

Although  there  appeared  an  imperative  necessity 
at  this  time  for  the  rebels  to  strengthen  their  hard- 
pressed  armies  in  the  West,  they,  that  is,  Jefferson 
Davis  and  the  few  who  sided  with  him  and  abso- 
lutely controlled  the  affairs  of  the  Rebellion,  thought 
they  had  the  best  of  reasons  for  taking  a,  different 
course.  They  believed  that  those  in  the  North  who 
would,  in  spite  of  anything,  continue  to  be  their 
friends,  were  about  to  gain  the  political  ascendency, 
and  then  nothing  could  be  surer  than  their  indepen- 
dence. The  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  beaten  and 
dispirited,  and  its  officers  were  political  caballers,  who 
would  have  restored  to  the  leadership  the  ever  un- 
ready McClellan,  whom  the  "Opposition"  had  al- 
ready determined  to  run  for  the  Presidency,  and 
himself 

"Cautious  in  the  field,  he  shunned  the  sword; 
A  close  caballer,  and  tongue- valiant  lord." 

The  "Northern  Copperheads"  were  busy  and 
hopeful.  They  were  doing  all  they  could  in  riotous 
resistance   to   the    Government.      The   loyal   people 


412  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

were  despondent  and  uncertain.  If  the  rebels  could 
now  strike  a  stunning  blow  on  Northern  soil,  the  ad- 
vantage would  probably  be  of  inestimable  value,  if 
not  decisive  to  their  cause.  It  was  the  auspicious 
moment  for  another  Northern  sortie.  And  so  all 
other  considerations  gave  way  before  this,  and  by 
the  3d  of  June,  Lee's  advance  was  on  its  way  by 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  to  Pennsylvania. 

On  the  14th  he  reached  Winchester,  where  Gen- 
eral R.  H.  Milroy  with  seven  thousand  troops  was 
posted.  On  the  following  day  he  captured  about 
half  of  Milroy's  little  army,  and  most  of  his  stores 
and  guns.  By  the  26th  of  June,  Lee  had  crossed 
the  Potomac  at  Shepardstown  and  Williamsport,  a 
part  of  his  cavalry  having  been  at  Chambersburg, 
Pennsylvania,  ten  days  previously. 

A.  P.  Hill's  corps  had  remained  for  a  time  at 
Fredericksburg  to  watch  the  movements  of  Hooker, 
but  had  now  joined  the  main  force  going  to  the 
North.  The  rebels  had  put  forth  all  their  conscrip- 
tion and  other  resources  for  this  expedition,  and  the 
result  was  the  largest  and  best  equipped  army  they 
were  ever  able  to  send  out,  numbering  in  infantry, 
cavalry,  and  artillery  nearly  one  hundred  thousand 
men.  After  Hooker  was  fully  aware  of  Lee's  depar- 
ture, he  desired  to  cross  the  Rappahannock  and  whip 
Hill,  as  he  readily  could  have  done  without  much 
delay  in  pursuing  Lee,  but  this  wise  plan  Halleck 
did  not  approve.  On  the  26th  of  June  Hooker 
crossed  the  Potomac  at  E(hvards's  Ferry,  and  moved 
on  to  Frederick,  where  he  resigned  the  command  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  413 

the  army  to  General  George  G.  Meade,  and  by  order 
of  Halleck  was  directed  to  proceed  to  Baltimore  and 
await  further  instructions.  In  a  little  address  or 
order  to  the  army  he  said  that  he  was  impressed 
with  the  belief  that  his  usefulness  with  it  had  ended. 
A  few  days  subsequently  he  was  arrested  in  Wash- 
ington by  General  Halleck  for  leaving  Baltimore 
without  permission.  Halleck  had  opposed  his  ap- 
pointment to  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  his  strange  conduct  and  utter  failure  at 
Chancellorsville  had  further  convinced  the  General-in- 
Chief  that  Hooker  was  wholly  unfit  for  such  a  trust. 
And  in  this  he  was  correct,  his  judgment  being  that 
of  his  countrymen  and  of  history.  Hooker's  foolish 
and  unpatriotic  political  aspirations,  or  supposed  as- 
pirations in  that  w^ay,  were  also  an  additional  source 
of  offense  to  Halleck;  while  Hooker,  on  his  part, 
charged  to  Halleck  most  of  his  troubles,  if  not  his 
failure.  If  Halleck  had  been  in  the  employ  of  Jeff 
Davis,  Hooker  said  he  could  not  have  embarrassed 
him  more  than  he  did  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
of  his  command  of  the  army. 

About  the  time  that  Hooker  took  this  position  he 
was  supposed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  the  Presi- 
dential disease,  and  was  accused  of  thinking  that  he 
possessed  qualities  especially  fitting  him  to  be  a  tem- 
porary military  dictator.  Concerned  only  about  the 
national  success  and  honor,  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  to  him 
directly  about  this  matter,  telling  him  that  he  needed 
to  give  himself  no  concern  about  his  political  future, 
that  if  he  conducted  himself  so  as  to  defeat  Lee  and 


414  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ruin  the  hopes  of  the  rebels,  the  loyal  people  of  the 
country  would  take  care  of  his  interests.  The  Presi- 
dency would  be  thrust  upon  him,  and  he  would  be 
one  to  join  in  doing  him  honor.  Long  before  Hooker 
set  out  to  pursue  Lee  into  Pennsylvania  he  felt  that 
he  had  the  same  difficulties  to  contend  with  that 
brought  Pope  and  Burnside  to  ruin.  Halleck  was 
not  the  only  man  in  his  way.  The  President  had 
notified  him  that  he  feared  he  was  not  meeting  the 
earnest  co-operation  of  some  of  his  officers.  It  was 
fortunate  for  the  country  that  the  cool,  fair-minded, 
frank  Lincoln  was  at  the  head  of  affidrs  at  this  trying 
period.  In  his  early  life  he  had  been  noted  as  the 
fairest  of  men,  and  the  best  judge  in  their  dissen- 
sions find  difficulties,  and  now  this  faculty  was  daily 
put  to  its  utmost  test,  especially  in  the  management 
of  the  self-serving  political  generals  in  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac. 

On  crossing  the  Potomac,  Hooker  found  eleven 
thousand  men  under  General  W.  H.  French  at  Har- 
per's Ferry,  and  seeing  no  use  of  keeping  them  there, 
applied  to  Halleck  to  be  allowed  to  attach  them  to 
his  army,  which  he  considered  less  than  Lee's,  but 
Halleck  unwisely  answered  that  French  must  be  left 
on  Maryland  Heights.  This  act  Hooker  took  as  the 
pretext  for  immediately  asking  for  his  relief;  which 
was  no  more  than  was  expected.  Meade  had  not  the 
slightest  premonition  of  what  awaited  him.  He  had 
been  one  of  the  most  successful  officers  connected 
with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  but  had  been  quiet, 
and  was  not  a  Presidential  aspirant,   and,  perhaps, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  415 

the  best  evidence  there  was  that  he  had  been  any 
way  connected  with  the  disgraceful  cabals  was  in  his 
supposing  that  the  order  for  him  to  take  command 
of  the  army  was  an  order  for  his  arrest.  It  was  a 
dangerous  experiment  to  change  commanders  at  such 
a  moment,  but  perhaps  no  evil  came  of  it. 

Meade  issued  a  modest  order,  and  proceeded  at 
once  about  the  work  in  hand.  French  was  placed 
under  his  command  at  discretion,  also  the  twenty 
thousand  or  more  militia  under  Couch  at  Harrisburg, 
both  of  which  he  left  alone,  although  Hooker  had 
resigned  because  he  could  not  use  French. 

A  part  of  the  rebel  army  penetrated  Pennsylvania 
to  within  thirteen  miles  of  Harrisburg  foraging  on  the 
country,  and  levying  heavily  in  money  and  supplies 
at  York  and  Carlisle.  Lee  halted  at  Chambersburg, 
and  remained  there  several  days,  evidently  for  news 
from  the  North.  At  the  same  time  Alexander  H. 
Stephens  made  application  to  visit  Washington  as  a 
commissioner  from  Jefferson  Davis,  but  stopped  on 
being  notified  that  "the  customary  agents  and  chan- 
nels are  adequate  for  all  needed  communications  and 
conferences  between  the  United  States  forces  and  the 
insurgents."  The  draft  riots  in  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia were  delayed,  and  Lee,  anxious  for  his  com- 
munications, became  impatient.  He  now  began  to 
fear  that  the  projected  uprising  in  the  North  was 
likely  to  render  him  little  aid.  For  the  want  of  his 
cavalry,  which  he  had  unwisely  sent  away,  he  was 
poorly  informed  as  to  the  movements  of  Meade.  On 
the    29th  he  ascertained    beyond  a  doubt,  that   the 


416  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Federals  were  not,  as  he  seemed  to  expect,  awaiting 
events  on  the  Potomac,  but  were  then  close  upon 
him,  pressing  forward  for  the  passes  of  South  Mount- 
ain. Still,  if  Meade  had  any  plan  it  did  not  appenr 
very  clear  that  it  embraced  a  p;issage  through  this 
mountain  ridge,  an  extension  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  for 
he  was  looking  for  a  strong  position  on  Pipe  Creek, 
fifteen  miles  south  of  Gettysburg,  as  if  he  wouhl  be 
sought  there  by  Lee.  While  this  was  the  apparent 
state  of  the  case,  by  the  first  day  of  July,  a  part  of 
his  cavalry  and  twenty  thousand  infantry,  under 
Generals  John  F.  Reynolds  and  0.  0.  Howard, 
reached  Gettysburg. 

This  historic  town  is  about  ten  miles  east  of 
South  Mountain,  occupying  an  elevated  position  in 
the  small  valley  of  Rock  Creek  among  some  ridges 
and  high  hills,  fragmentary  outposts  of  South  Mount- 
ain. One  of  these  ridges,  called  Seminary  Ridge, 
stretches  for  several  miles  north  and  south  on  the 
west  of  the  town ;  while  another,  called  Cemetery 
Ridge,  shaped  like  a  fish-hook,  and  having  several 
high  points — Gulp's  Hill,  Round  Top,  and  Little 
Round  Top — on  it,  lies  to  the  south-east  of  the  town. 
On  Cemetery  Ridge  is  the  cemetery,  and  on  Sem- 
inary Ridge  is  a  theological  school. 

It  had  not  been  Lee's  design  to  fight  unless  the 
advantages  were  evidently  on  his  side.  He  seemed 
to  have  no  plan,  indeed.  He  was  waiting  for  some- 
thing to  turn  up.  What  were  the  miserable  Northern 
allies  going  to  do  ?  Every  moment  was  fatal  to  him ; 
and  he  acted  throusrhout  as  if  the  demon  of  destruction 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  417 

were  guiding  him.  His  conduct  was  daring,  but  not 
that  of  a  wise  soldier.  He  had  yet  not  learned  that 
one  man  was  equal  to  one  man  under  proper  general- 
ship. And  when,  at  last,  he  heard  without  the  use 
of  his  cavalry  thnt  Meade  was  pressing  on  after  him, 
he  ordered  all  his  army  to  concentrate  at  Gettysburg, 
and  came  down  there  to  fight  a  battle,  which  it  was 
really  his  policy  to  avoid.  Under  the  pretense  of 
generalship  no  raid  or  expedition  of  the  war  was  so 
complete  a  failure  as  this.  But  in  another  chapter  a 
glance  will  be  taken  at  Gener;il  Lee  as  a  soldier. 

Before  noon  on  the  1st  of  July  the  Union  cavalry, 
under  General  J.  Buford,  met  Hill's  advance  on  the 
Chambersburg  Road,  west  of  Gettysburg.  Buford 
made  a  stout  effort  to  check  the  rebels  until  Rey- 
nolds, who  had  already  reached  the  town,  should 
come  to  his  aid  across  Seminary  Ridge.  Howard's 
corps  was  also  not  far  in  the  rear,  making  this  ad- 
vance force  of  Meade's  army  about  twenty  thousand 
strong.  Reynolds  attacked  the  rebels  with  vigor,  but 
at  the  very  outset  received  a  shot  in  the  neck  which 
"ended  his  life."  Abner  Doubleday,  an  able  officer, 
immediately  succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  1st  corps, 
and  Howard  now  came  up  with  his  corps,  taking  com- 
mand of  the  field.  At  first  the  conflict  was  in  favor 
of  the  Union  forces,  but  this  could  not  last.  From 
Chambersburg,  York,  and  Carlisle  the  rebels  poured 
down,  and  before  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  Howard 
was  whipped  and  pressed  back  over  Seminary  Ridge, 
and  through  Gettysburg,  taking  a  position  in  the  cem- 
etery on  Cemetery  Ridge,  in  which,  strangely  enough, 

27— Q 


418  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

he  was  not  disturbed  the  rest  of  the  evening  or  that 
night.  Nearly  h;ilf  of  Howard's  force  had  been  lost, 
and  at  four  o'clock  Lee  had  at  Gettysburg  forty  or 
fifty  thousand  men.  He  could  have  surrounded 
Howard  and  captured  or  killed  his  whole  remaining 
force  before  night.  Longstreet  was  tardy,  and  Lee 
wanted  his  whole  arm}' ;  so  further  operations  were 
put  off  until  the  next  diiy.  No  sofdier  ever  made  a 
more  glaring  mistake.  He  said  he  did  not  know  the 
strength  of  the  Union  army  on  the  heights  before 
him.  He  certainly  knew  with  what  force  he  had 
been  fighting,  and  it  was  an  amazing  thing  if  one  of 
the  numerous  prisoners  he  had  taken  could  not  be 
found  to  tell  that  Meade  with  four-fifths  of  his  nrmy 
was  fifteen  miles  away.  The  absence  of  his  cavalry 
was  not  an  apology  for  his  not  knowing  that  while  he 
waited  for  Longstreet,  Mende  would  not  be  idle. 

It  was  one  o'clock  before  Meade  knew  of  what 
was  going  on  at  Gettysburg.  But  he  must  have 
supposed  the  rebel^  General  meant  to  go  out  of  his 
way  to  fight  him,  or  he  would  not  have  been  search- 
ing for  a  "  strong  position,"  at  the  same  time  ex- 
posing one-fifth  of  his  army  to  be  overwhelmed  with- 
out the  possibility  of  succor.  General  W.  S.  Han- 
cock was  sent  on  to  take  command  at  Gettysburg, 
who,  thinking  well  of  the  position,  urged  Meade  to 
bring  forward  the  whole  army,  and  continue  the 
battle  on  Cemetery  Ridge.  At  midnight  Meade  ar- 
rived, and  by  day-break  on  the  morning  of  the  2d 
all  the  Union  army,  but  Sedgwick's  corps,  had  come 
up  and    taken   position,  and   a  hundred    cannons  on 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  419 

Cemetery  Ridge  were  ready  to  begin  the  work  of 
slaughter.  The  relative  situation  of  the  two  aimies 
was  very  much  as  it  had  been  at  Fredericksburg, 
the  attacking  force  being  compelled  to  pass  the  inter- 
mediate valley  swept  by  hostile  guns.  The  rebel 
army  extended  along  the  broken  Seminary  Ridge 
for  three  or  four  miles,  with  a  gap  of  a  mile  between 
two  of  its  corps.  Longstreet  was  on  the  extreme 
right  and  really  overlapping  the  Union  left.  This 
unfortunate  position  of  the  Federal  army  rendered  it 
liable  to  be  turned  at  any  time;  but  the  rebel  Gen- 
eral either  thought  himself  too  powerful  to  use  the 
advantage,  or  did  not  know  that  he  could  do  so. 
He  was  under  the  impression  that  he  only  had  to 
move  forward  and  complete  the  task  he  had  so  aus- 
piciously begun  the  day  before.  He  was  still  with- 
out his  cavalry,  and,  with  some  claim  -to  the  respect- 
ability of  his  opinion,  held  that  he  could  not  know 
that  an  army  equal  at  least  in  numbers  and  bravery 
to  his  own  was  concealed  behind  the  crest  of  Ceme- 
tery Ridge.  The  day,  however'  wore  away  before 
he  could  see  his  opportunity  and  was  ready  to  strike. 
Sickles  had  been  ordered  with  his  corps  to  take  a 
position  in  the  fields  between  the  two  ridges  on  the 
Union  left,  with  his  own  right  continuing  the  line  at 
Little  Round  Top,  but  in  his  eagerness  to  fight  had 
pushed  forward  some  distance,  where  Meade  failed 
to  discover  him  until  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 
This  fatal  error  it  was  then  too  late  to  correct,  al- 
though Sickles  began  the  attempt.  Lee  had  also 
discovered  this  blunder  and  at  once  began  a  furious 


420  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

cannonade  preparatory  to  the  movement  of  his  as- 
saulting force.  The  struggle  was  desperate,  but 
when  the  day  closed  slavery  was  not  master.  Gen- 
eral Sickles  had  been  wounded  and  in  his  corps  the 
Union  loss  was  very  great.  Longs  tree  t  had  dis- 
covered how  easily  he  could  command  Meade's  posi- 
tion from  Little  Round  Top,  and  sent  Hood  to  oc- 
cupy it,  but  he  was  unsuccessful.  The  brave  General 
G.  K.  Warren  had  made  the  same  discovery,  and 
was  there  before  him.  Here  there  was  a  desperate 
conflict,  and  had  the  rebels  gained  this  high  point  in 
Cemetery  Uidge  the  day  would  have  been  theirs. 
Still  they  had  pressed  in  this  end  of  the  Union  line, 
and  held  a  part  of  Gulp's  Hill,  at  the  other.  AnjJ 
so  the  day  ended  in  a  way  to  lure  the  rebel  com- 
mander further  on  in  the  idea  that  he  yet  had  the 
advantage,  and  would  to-morrow  reap  all  its  benefits 
in  a  final  effort. 

Gulp's  Hill,  the  extreme  right  of  the  Union  line 
had  been  weakened  in  the  struggle  for  Little  Round 
Top,  but  in  the  night  the  troops  withdrawn  were 
returned  to  that  point  in  the  line,  and  at  dawn  on 
the  3d,  after  a  fight  of  an  hour  or  two,  the  rebels 
were  driven  from  the  position  they  had  gained  the 
evening  before.  And  so  matters  stood  until  after 
noon. 

Sedgwick  had  arrived  before  the  battle  of  the  2d, 
and  that  night  Lee's  cavalry  had  come  in,  also  his 
last  infantry  division.  From  one  o'clock  to  three 
the  rebels  kept  up  an  incessant  artillery  fire,  until 
Lee  thought  he  had   silenced   most  of  the    Federal 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  421 

guns,  which  had  been  stopped,  however,  to  free  the 
atmosphere  of  smoke  to  observe  better  the  move- 
ments of  the  attacking  column  to  come  next. 

Strangely  enough  when  this  grand  column  of 
brave  men  started  toward  the  well-posted  Union 
army  their  own  supporting  cannonade  was  stopped, 
and  not  renewed.  General  Lee  had  made  the  fatal 
discovery  when  it  was  too  late  that  his  ammunition 
was  nearly  exhausted.  The  main  assault  w^as  directed 
against  the  center  of  the  Federal  position,  thus  giving 
full  play  to  the  Federal  guns  from  the  greater  part 
of  the  line,  which  Lee  now  found  to  his  amazement 
he  had  not  silenced.  But  onward  pressed  his 
vetern  troops.  Some  of  them  actually  gained  the 
heights,  driving  the  Federals  momentarily  before 
them,  but  where  in  a  hand-to-hand  conflict  they  were 
overcome.  Regiment  after  regiment  threw  down  its 
arms  and  rushed  forward  to  surrender.  Others  were 
cut  down,  and,  scattered  and  broken,  the  remnant 
sought  safety  in  the  woods  on  Seminary  Ridge.  The 
great  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  ended.  The  last 
rebel  sortie  had  failed.  Lee  and  his  invincible  army 
had  confidently  met  an  equal  number  of  Federal 
troops  under  an  untried  and  unpretending  officer, 
and  been  whipped.  And  the  hope  of  the  Northern 
"  Copperheads  "  had  been  crushed  forever. 

Nearly  three  thousand  of  the  Union  troops  were 
killed,  nearly  fourteen  thousand  wounded,  and  about 
six  thousand  missing.  And  about  five  thousand 
rebels  were  killed,  twenty  thousand  wounded  and 
about  ten  thousand  unwounded  taken  prisoners,  and 


422  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  greater  part  of  their  wounded  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  Federals. 

On  the  night  of  the  4th  Lee  withdrew,  and  al- 
though French  had  destroyed  the  greater  part  of  his 
pontoon  train,  Meade  made  a  weak  pursuit,  and 
finally  allowed  Lee  to  escape  across  the  Potomac. 
On  the  18th  of  July  the  Union  army  again  entered 
Virginia,  passing  over  oft-trodden  grounds  to  the 
historic  Rappahannock. 

Although  in  the  next  four  or  five  months  several 
severe  fights  occurred  in  this  region,  and  the  cavalry 
was  quite  active,  if  not  always  successful  or  wisely 
handled,  yet  with  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  ended  its  decisive  work  for  the  year 
1863.  A  part  of  it  was  sent  to  the  West,  as  was 
also  a  part  of  Lee's  rebels,  and  for  a  time  the  atten- 
tion of  the  country  was  turned  to  the  stirring  events 
in  that  direction.  A  new  era  in  the  history  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  was  about  to  begin.  Up  to 
this  time  it  had  merely  held  its  own  against  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  as  the  rebel  army  was 
called.  There  had  been  no  brilliant  generalship  dis- 
played on  either  side,  no  successful  strategy  to 
touch  the  eulogist's  pen.  In  vain  may  the  candid 
reader  and  student  hope  to  find  the  elements  of 
pride  and  admiration  in  the  history  of  the  war  in 
Virginia  up  to  this  period.  The  general  picture  only 
startles  regret  and  sorrow. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  428 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1863— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— THE  WES  T— VICKSBURG— 
PORT  HUDSON— THE  MISSISSH'PI  OPENED— CHICKA- 
MAUGA— CHATTANOOGA—  LOOKOUT  MOUNTAIN—  BAT- 
TLE ABOVE  THE  CLOUDS— BURNSIDE  AT  KNOXVILLE— 
MINOR  EVENTS— NEGRO  SOLDIERS— FORT  PILLOW— 
GILLMORE  AT  FORT  SUMTER  —  MISSOURI  —  THE  IN- 
DIANS— THE  NAVY— ENGLAND  HUMILIATED— PROUD 
MISTRESS  OF  THE  SEA  ? 

AT  the  beginning  of  this  year  Rosecrans,  with 
the  Array  of  the  Cumberhind,  was  at  Murfrees- 
boro,  facing  towards  Chattanooga;  and  the  Army  of 
the  Tennessee,  as  Grant's  command  w;is  ;it  tliis  time 
called,  was  on  the  Mississippi,  with  Vicksburg  as  its 
objective  point.  Although  diverted  from  his  original 
plan  for  the  capture  of  Vicksburg  and  the  complete 
overthrow  of  the  rebel  power  on  the  Mississippi,  as 
shown  in  a  former  chapter,  Grant  now  set  to  work 
to  accomplish  his  purpose  by  way  of  the  great  river 
itself,  without  any  definite  plan.  Or  perhaps  it 
would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  all  his  early 
plans  failed,  and  dropping  one  he  fell  upon  another, 
until  he  did,  at  last,  gain  his  purpose  in  a  system  of 
daring  and  vigorous  operations,  which  met  the  en- 
thusiastic applause  of  his  countrymen.  The  position 
of  Vicksburg  was  naturally  strong,  and  the  rebels 
had  exhausted    their   efforts   to    make  it  another  of 


424  LIFE  AND  TITHES  OF 

their  Gibraltnrs  of  the  West.  Besides  its  occupy- 
ing one  of  the  boldest  and  most  elevated  sites  on 
the  Lower  Mississippi,  it  was  surrounded  by  a  net- 
work of  marshes,  impassable  bayous,  and  swampy 
and  impenetrable  forests.  The  fortifications  ex- 
tended several  miles  along  the  Mississippi,  quite  ef- 
fectively blockading  it,  and  were  held  b}'  about 
twenty-five  thousand  troops,  under  John  C.  Pember- 
ton,  a  vain  soldier,  but  by  no  means  able  to  cope 
with  his  daring  foe,  a  man  who  recognized  no  creed 
but  success.  Pemberton  was  under  the  command  of 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  was  watching 
Rosecrans  from  Chattanooga  and  Tullahoma,  but  un- 
fortunately for  his  cause,  he  paid  little  regard,  espe- 
cially when  hard  pressed,  to  the  superior  wisdom  of 
Johnston. 

Eaj'ly  abandoning  "the  idea  of  operating  against 
Vicksburg  by  the  river,  or  on  the  north,  Grant  began 
to  devise  means  of  getting  his  army  to  the  south  of 
it.  Farragut  had  twice  run  the  gauntlet  of  the  bat- 
teries, but  it  did  not,  unfortunately,  occur  to  Grant, 
until  he  had  had  some  dear  experience,  that  this 
could  be  done  again.  After  spending  several  months 
in  an  attempt  to  change  the  channel  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, thus  neutralizing  Vicksburg  by  rendering  it 
an  inland  town,  and  in  otherwise  trying  to  open  a 
water  communication  to  the  South  on  the  west  side, 
as  well  as  in  trying  to  reach  the  rebel  position  by 
opening  a  way  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Yazoo,  he 
tried  the  experiment  of  running  the  batteries  with 
his   gunboats   and   transports,  and    succeeded  so  well 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  425 

as  to  determine  at  once  to  transfer  his  whole  army, 
then  about  thirty  thousand  strong,  to  the  south  of 
Vicksburg. 

Toward  the  last  of  March,  1863,  his  troops  began 
to  move  from  Milliken's  Bend  on  a  circuitous  and  dif- 
ficult route  through  Arkansas,  first  designing  to  strike 
the  river  and  cross  it  at  New  Carthage.  But  by  rea- 
son of  the  broken  levee  and  flooded  condition  of  the 
country,  the  march  was  continued  dowai  to  Hard 
Times,  opposite  Grand  Gulf,  and  the  crossing  Avas 
finally  effected  without  opposition  at  Bruinsburg,  a 
little  farther  below,  on  the  last  day  of  April.  Sher- 
man had  been  left  above  to  make  a  diversion  with  his 
whole  corps  on  the  Yazoo  in  favor  of  this  daring 
movement,  and  having  accomplished  his  object,  and 
completely  bewildering  Pemberton  as  to  the  real  de- 
signs of  his  determined  foes,  he  hastened  with  all 
possible  speed  through  Arkansas  to  overtake  Grant. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  General  B.  H.  Grierson, 
with  a  thousand  cavalrymen,  set  out  to  ride  six  hun- 
dred miles  from  La  Grange,  Tennessee,  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi, to  Baton  Rouge,  going  to  the  east  of  all  of 
Pemberton's  forces,  and  destroying  his  communica- 
tions, telegraph  lines,  mills,  magazines,  manufactories, 
and  so  forth.  This  task  Grierson  performed  to  the 
consternation  and  amazement  of  the  country,  and  the 
satisfaction  of  his  chief.  Having  gained  his  hold  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river,  on  the  1st  of  May,  Grant 
set  out  to  execute  the  remainder  of  his  now  definite, 
daring,  and  brilliant  plan.  Eight  miles  out,  near  Port 
Gibson,  the    rebels    were    met   under    General   J.  S. 


426  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Bowen,  and  defeated  with  considerable  loss.  That 
night  they  withdrew  from  Grand  Gulf,  and  at  that 
point  Grant  at  once  fixed  his  temporary  base  of  sup- 
plies on  the  river.  He  was  now  forced  to  await 
until  the  8lh  before  Sherman  could  overtake  him. 
He  now  struck  for  the  railroad  in  the  rear  of  Vicks- 
burg,  captured  Jackson,  the  State  Capital,  turned 
upon  Pemberton,  and  after  severe  engagements  at 
Champion's  Hill,  Big  Black  River,  and  other  points, 
by  the  19th  had  driven  Pemberton  into  his  fortifica- 
tions at  Vicksburg  and  pretty  thoroughly  sealed  him 
up.  He  had  long  ago  .cut  loose  from  Grand  Gulf, 
with  a  view  of  opening  communications  with  his  de- 
pots of  supplies  above  Vicksburg  after  its  capture  or 
investment  This  feat  he  now  readily  performed. 
However  distasteful  such  a  course  was  te  Grant,  he 
now  saw  that  he  must  settle  down  to  a  regular  siege. 
He  called  in  all  the  spare  forces  from  his  own  de- 
partment, and  the  authorities  at  Washington  gave 
every  aid  possible,  so  that  his  total  strength  reached 
seventy  thousand  men,  and  was  great  enough  to  re- 
sist any  force  Johnston  might  bring  upon  his  rear. 
At  the  outset  he  had  made  two  or  three  unsuccess- 
ful attempts  to  carry  the  place  by  storm,  and  by  the 
first  of  July  he  was  ready  to  try  the  experiment 
again.  Johnston  was  then  approaching  from  Canton 
after  weeks  of  delay,  and  although  Grant  had  Sher- 
man, with  an  equal  force,  watching  the  rebel  move- 
ments, he  became  more  and  more  anxious  to  finish 
the  work  before  him.  In  his  own  army  there  had 
not  been  perfect  harmony.     To  correct  this  difficulty 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  427 

he  had  been  compelled  to  relieve  General  John  A. 
McClernand,  a  really  patriotic  and  able  soldier,  but 
pestiferous  politician,  who  never  could  lose  sight  of 
the  gatiie  of  "personal  honors."  Over  the  country 
there  had  been  loud  complaint,  and  Grant's  inca});icity 
was  a  general  theme  when  one  failure  after  another 
was  reported  of  his  attempts  to  open  a  new  channel 
for  the  Mississippi.  Donelson  and  Shiloh  had  been 
hair-breadth  escapes,  and  the  country  neither  knew 
nor  had  confidence  in  General  Grant.  From  the  be^ 
ginning  he  thought  little  of  any  scheme  for  the  cap- 
ture of  Vicksburg  by  the  river  which  was  not  laid 
OQ  its  southern  or  eastern  side.  The  advantages  of 
returning  to  the  interior  to  operate  upon  its  rear,  ac- 
cording to  his  original  design  after  the  dispersion  of 
Beauregard's  army  from  Corinth,  were  not  now  ap- 
parent. And  when  he  had  performed  the  unique 
and  unparalleled  feat  which  placed  him  in  the  rear 
of  Vicksburg  with  his  communications  established 
above  it  on  the  river,  the  certainty  of  his  success 
was  not  proved,  and  the  country  was  still  clamorous. 
At  all  events,  admiration  for  his  performance  died 
out  in  the  unexpected  delay  which  followed.  While 
Grant  was  not,  perhaps,  unmindful  of  these  things, 
one  thing  stood  above  them  all  and  was  supreme 
with  him,  the  conquest  of  the  rebels  and  establish- 
ment of  the  power  of  the  Government. 

The  certain  sound  of  victory  had  scarcely  shot 
over  the  Nation  from  Gettysburg  on  the  4th  of  July, 
when  the  whole  country  was  electrified  by  the  news 
which  came  up  with    the    speed   of   lightning    from 


428  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Vicksburg.  On  that  auspicious  day  the  power  of  the 
Rebellion  had  crumbled  away  on  the  Mississippi. 
Grant  had  made  preparations  for  a  final  assault  on 
the  5th.  Pemberton  saw  what  the  result  would  be, 
and  having  abandoned  all  hope  of  succor  from  John- 
ston, although  that  General  was  at  that  very  moment 
trying  to  notify  him  that  he  was  moving  as  rapidly 
as  he  could  with  a  view  of  so  occupj-ing  Grant's 
strength  as  to  enable  him  to  cut  his  way  out  of  the 
trouble  into  which  he  had  got  by  inability  and  dis- 
obedience, notified  Grant  that  he  was  ready  to  ar- 
range the  terms  for  surrender.  At  three  o'clock  on 
the  third  day  of  July  the  two  commanders  met,  and 
Pemberton  proposed  the  appointment  of  commission- 
ers to  negotiate  upon  the  terms  of  surrender.  This 
political  trick  was  ever  uppermost  with  rebel  gen- 
erals, and  no  loyal  soldier  was  ever  more  averse  to 
listening  to  it  a  moment  than  was  General  Grant. 
He  declined,  and  then  listened  patiently  and  without 
a  sign  of  irritation  to  Pemberton's  display  of  ill-humor 
and  discourtesy  until  he  saw  fit  to  end  the  meeting 
by  an  offer  to  put  his  terms  in  writing.  And  so  at 
ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  July  Vicks- 
burg surrendered  to  General  Grant. 

Besides  the  munitions  of  war  over  twenty-five 
thousand  men,  well,  wounded,  and  sick  rebel  soldiers, 
were  surrendered  at  Vicksburg.  This  was,  perhaps, 
the  most  brilliant  campaign  of  the  war,  furnishing 
more  of  the  elements  worthy  of  general  admiration 
and  less  of  the  conditions  of  militar}'  criticism.  But 
it   had   not   been  without    cost.     What  did  General 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  429 

Grant  ever  d^  which  was  not  at  great  cost?  Nearly 
a  thousand  lives  had  been  lost,  over  seven  thousand 
had  been  wounded,  and  five  hundred  were  missing. 
Still,  considering  the  great  work  done,  this  was  all 
exceedingly  moderate  in  comparison  with  the  bloody 
and  undecisive  conflicts  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
N.  P.  Banks,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  command 
of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf,  and  who  had  been 
moving  about  with  unvarying  successes  up  to  this 
time,  with  a  view  of  co-operating  with  Grant,  had  laid 
siege  to  Port  Hudson,  between  Baton  Rouge  and 
Vicksburg.  When  the  latter  place  fell,  the  rebel 
commander  at  Port  Hudson  seeing  the  uselessness  of 
further  resistance,  surrendered  that  place,  with  all  its 
property  and  ten  thousand  soldiers,  to  Banks  on  the 
9th  of  July.  The  small  rebel  forces  at  Helena,  Arkan- 
sas, and  other  points  on  the  river  were  also  imme- 
diately broken  up,  and  the  Mississippi  was  open  from 
one  end  to  the  other  as  a  national  highway,  and  the 
weak  western  end  of  the  rebel  section  severed  from 
the  main  body.  The  following  characteristic  letter  from 
Mr.  Lincoln  may  appropriately  stand  at  this  point: — 

"Executive  Mansion,  Wasiiinoton,  \ 
"  July  13,  1863.         / 
"  Major-General  Grant  : — 

"  My  De:ar  General, — I  do  not  remember  that  you 
and  I  ever  met  personally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grateful 
acknowledgment  for  the  almost  inestimable  service  you 
have  done  the  country.  I  write  to  say  a  word  further. 
When  you  first  reached  the  vicinity  of-  Vicksburg,  I 
thought  you  should  do  what  you  finally  did — march  the 
troops  across  the  neck,  run  the  batteries  with  the  trans- 
ports, and  thus  go  below ;    and   I    never    had    any    faith, 


430  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

except  a  general  hope  that  you  knew  better  than  I,  that 
the  Yazoo  Pass  expedition,  and  the  like,  could  succeed.. 
When  you  got  below,  and  took  Port  Gibson,  Grand  Gulf, 
and  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go  down  the  river  and 
join  General  Banks;  and  when  you  turned  northward,  east 
of  the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it  was  a  mistake.  I  now  wish 
to  make  the  personal  acknowledgment,  that  you  were 
right  and  I  was  wrong.  Yours  truly, 

"A.  Lincoln." 

The  events  which  have  just  been  briefly  men- 
tioned greatly  changed  the  current  of  feeling  in  the 
North.  The  darkest  point  had  been  passed.  The 
riotous  spirit  was  suppressed,  and  emancipation  began 
to  be  the  accepted  policy  of  the  loyal  people  as  well 
as  of  the  Administration.  So  pleased  was  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, who  was  now,  to  all  appearances,  fast  becortiing 
pious  in  a  really  old-fashioned  orthodox  way,  that 
about  the  middle  of  July,  thinking  the  circumstances 
justified  it,  he  issued  a  proclamation,  setting  apart 
the  6th  of  August  as  a  day  of  "  thanksgiving,  praise, 
and  prayer."  He  said :  "  It  is  meet  and  right  to 
recognize  and  confess  the  presence  of  the  Almighty 
Father,  and  the  power  of  his  hand  equally  in  these 
triumphs  and  these  sorrows."  This  proclamation  and 
the  similar  one,  so  soon  following  on  its  heels  early 
in  October,  as  well  as  later  matters  of  this  kind, 
will  be  noticed  again  in  the  chapter  on  Mr.  Lincoln's 
"religion." 

After  the  battle  of.Murfreesboro  or  Stone  River 
General  Rosecrans  remained  comparatively  quiet 
until  the  middle  of  the  following  summer.  The 
necessity  for  this  long  inaction  in  the  Army  of  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  431 

Cumberland  does  not  more  clearly  appear  at  this  day 
than  it  did  then.  However  the  case  may  have  been, 
it  was  after  the  middle  of  June,  1863,  before  Rose- 
crans  moved  towards  Chattanooga.  His  army  was 
over  fifty  thousand  strong,  and  the  rebel  army,  under 
Bragg,  at  Tullahoma,  was,  perhaps,  equally  large. 
Still  General  Bragg  retired  as  the  Federals  advanced, 
nor  did  he  see  fit  to  halt  long  at  Chattanooga.  His 
disposition  to  run  misled  Rosecrans  into  the  belief 
that  he  was  not  Avilling  to  fight. 

At  Lafayette,  twenty-five  miles  south-east  of  Chat- 
tanooga, Bragg  began  to  gather  re-enforcements  and 
concentrate,  and  watch  his  opportunity  to  strike  the 
incautious  and  misled  Federal  commander,  who  was 
wildly  dividing  his  army  in  the  pursuit.  At  last, 
however,  becoming  somewhat  doubtful  of  the  purpose 
of  the  rebel  General,  Rosecrans  began  to  concentrate 
his  scattered  army  in  the  valley  of  the  Chickamauga, 
between  Missionary  Ridge  and  Pigeon  Mountain, 
two  of  the  many  mountain  ridges  lying  w^est  and 
south  of  Chattanooga.  At  this  peiiod  Longstreet 
was  started  with  his  corps  from  Virginia  to  re-enforce 
Bragg,  and  every  exertion  was  made  at  Richmond  to 
gather  an  army  which  would  be  able  to  annihihite 
Rosecrans.  At  last  Bragg  turned  upon  his  pursuers, 
and  on  the  18th  of  September  the  hostile  armies  were 
facing  each  other,  with  Chickamauga  Creek  between 
them.  On  that  day  Longstreet  arrived,  and  during 
the  night  Bragg  crossed  the  creek  with  at  least  thirty 
thousand  of  his  troops.  At  ten  o'clock  General  George 
H.  Thomas,  occupying  the  left  of  the  Federal  line, 


432  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

discovering  what  he  supposed  to  be  a  small,  isolated 
rebel  force  on  the  west  side  of  the  creek,  sent  to  cut 
it  off,  and  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  began.  This 
day  WMS  spent  in  a  fruitless  effort  on  the  part  of 
Bragg  to  turn  the  left  of  the  Union  line  with  a  view 
of  getting  in  its  rear,  and  night  ended  the  conflict 
with  no  very  certain  indications  of  what  the  to-mor- 
row would  bring.  With  unbroken  line  Rosecrans 
held  his  position,  which,  especially  on  Thomas's 
front,  was  considerably  strengthened  by  breastworks 
during  the  night.  Late  on  the  morning  of  the  20th 
the  battle  was  renewed  by  a  fierce  and  determined 
assault  on  Thomas.  About  midday,  in  Rosecrans's 
efforts  to  thwart  the  enemy's  design  on  his  left. 
General  Thomas  J.  Wood  mistaking  his  order  to  close 
up,  withdrew  from  his  position  in  the  line,  leaving  a 
gap  into  which  Longstreet  sent  his  forces  with  great 
impetuosity.  This  was  the  turning  point  of  the  con- 
flict. Rosecrans  and  the  whole  left  of  his  army  were 
driven  back  and  dispersed.  Rosecrans  lost  his  cool- 
ness and  presence  of  mind,  and  not  knowing  that  his 
entire  army  was  not  broken  to  pieces,  did  not  him- 
self stop  until  he  reached  Chattanooga.  But  half  of 
the  Union  army  had  gathered  around  Thomas,  who 
fought  on  and  held  his  position  until  night,  when  he 
crept  away,  unpursued,  to  Chattanooga.  The  Union 
losses  in  this  great  battle  were  over  sixteen  thou- 
sand, in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing — over  one-tenth 
of  them  being  killed.  The  rebel  losses  were  not  less, 
and,  perhaps,  a  thousand  or  two  more.  Rosecrans 
now  fortified  himself  at  Chattanooga,  but  his  com- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  433 

munications  were  soon  broken,  to  a  great  extent,  by 
his  more  powerful  enemy,  and  every  day  made  his 
situation  more  desperate. 

About  the  middle  of  October  Grnnt  was  put 
in  command  of  the  three  departments  between  the 
Alleghany  Mountains  and  the  Mississippi,  and  sent 
to  Chattanooga,  and  Rosecrans  was  directed  to  turn 
over  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  to 
General  Thomas.  Through  the  persuasions  of  Secre- 
tary Stanton,  the  President  submitted  to  detaching 
two  corps  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  send- 
ing these  under  General  Hooker  to  aid  in  opening 
communications  to  Chattanooga,  and  raising  the  army 
there  to  fighting  strength. 

Toward  the  close  of  March,  1863,  Burnside  had 
been  phiced  in  command  of  what  was  termed  the  De- 
partment of  the  Ohio,  and  in  August  marched  with 
an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men  from  Kentucky  into 
East  Tennessee.  General  S.  B.  Buckner,  the  rebel 
commander  in  that  region,  retreated  before  him,  or 
rather  went,  according  to  his  orders,  to  join  Bingg  at 
Chattanooga.  Burnside  fortified  himself  strongly  at 
Knoxville,  and  occupied  his  army  in  small  detach- 
ments, which,  in  their  attempts  to  clear  the  country 
of  rebels,  were  occasionally  whipped,  instead  of  going 
to  the  aid  of  Rosecrans,  as  the  authorities  at  Wash- 
ington expected  him  to  do. 

The  ablest  military  head  in  the  Nation,  as  it 
turned  out,  was  now  in  command  of  all  this  western 
region,  and  the  good  results  of  the  arrangement  were 
soon  apparent.     On  the  19th  of  October,  1868,  Grant 

28— Q 


434  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

telegraphed  from  Louisville  to  Thomas  to  hold  out  at 
all  hazards.  The  answer  he  received  was,  "  I  will 
do  so  till  we  starve."  That  was  the  ring  to  inspire 
an  able  and  determined  commander.  On  the  23d 
Grant  was  at  Chattanooga,  and  after  a  reconnoissance 
on  the  following  morning,  fixed  upon  his  plan  of 
operations.  The  rebel  army  occupied  the  northern 
declivity  and  crest  of  Lookout  Mountain  and  the 
whole  western  declivity  and  crest  of  Missionary 
Ridge,  as  well  as  the  intervening  narrow  valley  of 
Chattanooga  Creek.  The  north  end  of  Lookout 
Mountain  to  the  south  of  Chattanooga  points  well  up 
to  the  Moccasin  or  great  bend  in  the  Tennessee 
River,  and  Missionary  Ridge  overlapping  this  point 
on  its  south  extends  north  and  south  up  the  river 
some  distance  nbove  Chattanooga,  to  the  eastward 
of  that  city,  all  of  these  historic  mountain  elevations 
and  the  city  itself  being  south  or  east  of  the  Ten- 
nessee. Lookout  Mountain  commanded  the  river 
opposite  the  Moccasin  peninsula  or  great  bend;  and 
from  the  north  end  of  Missionary  Ridge  to  the  riyer, 
and  some  distance  up  it,  extended  a  strong  rebel 
picket-line.  The  rebel  pickets  also  extended  from 
Lookout  Mountain  along  the  river  some  distance  be- 
low Raccoon  Mountain.  The  Union  picket-line 
stretched  along  several  miles  above  and  below  Chat- 
tanooga, but  on  the  w^est  and  north  side  of  the  river. 
In  front  of  Chattanooga,  facing  Missionary  Ridge  in 
a  semicircle,  with  one  end  on  the  river  above  and 
the  other  on  the  river  below  the  town,  lay  the  main 
body  of  the  Union   force,  strongly  intrenched,  when 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  435 

Grant  took  command.  On  the  right  and  left  of 
Thomas,  who  occupied  this  semicircle,  Grant  formed 
his  right  and  left;  Hooker  with  his  twenty-three 
thousand,  or  its  equivalent,  from  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  was  to  cross  the  river  at  Bridgeport,  move 
up,  carry  Lookout  Mountain,  and  form  the  right 
wing ;  and  Sherman,  who  was  making  his  way 
through  the  country  from  the  Mississippi,  was  to 
cross  the  river  above  the  town,  and  form  the  left 
wing  of  the  army. 

In  the  meantime  the  rebel  authorities,  greatly 
against  the  better  judgment  of  Brjigg,  had  forced  him 
to  detach  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  of  his  men 
under  Longstreet  to  East  Tennessee,  who  had  beaten 
Burnside's  scattered  troops  and  besieged  him  in  his 
fortifications  at  Knoxville.  Grant  became  very  anx- 
ious and  impatient  about  the  relief  of  Burnside,  but 
notified  him  that  he  must  hold  out  until  Bragg  was 
whipped.  Not  until  the  23d  of  November  did  Sher- 
man get  up,  and  the  movements  for  the  battle  of 
Chattanooga  begin.  On  that  night  and  the  following 
morning  Slierman  succeeded  in  crossing  the  river  on 
Thomas's  left  flank,  and  before  dark  on  the  24th  had 
driven  everything  before  him  and  firmly  secured  the 
whole  north  end  of  Missionary  Ridge.  On  this  day 
"Old  Hooker"  took  his  grandest  stride  in  the  race 
for  military  glory.  By  early  morning  Hooker  had 
crossed  the  river,  capturing  the  rebel  pickets,  or 
driving  them  before  him,  and  long  before  night  had 
cleared  the  rugged  and  furrowed  north  slope  of  Look- 
out Mountain,  and  the  plateau  above.     A  light  rain 


436  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

had  set  in  in  the  morning,  and  throughout  the  day 
mist  and  cloud  concealed  the  actors  in  this  wonderful 
exploit  from  the  army  in  the  valley.  Only  the  crash 
of  the  arms  and  the  flashes  of  fire  could  give  any 
clew  to  the  progress  of  Hooker.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
biittle  above  the  clouds.  The  night  came  on,  and  the 
sky  cleared,  and  the  clouds  passed  from  the  valley, 
and  still  Hooker  struggled  around  the  rugged  mount- 
ain side.  But  now  the  fires  kindled  by  his  reserves, 
and  the  flashes  of  his  muskets  plainly  told  the  anx- 
ious watchers  below  what  he  was  doing.  Shout  after 
shout  for  Jo  Hooker  sw^ept  over  the  valley;  and 
when  the  morning  of  the  25th  broke  Hooker's  left 
rested  on  Thomas's  right,  just  as  had  been  designed, 
and  the  rebels  had  not  only  been  driven  from  Look- 
out Mountain,  but  also  from  the  valley  of  the  Chat- 
tanooga to  Missionary  Ridge,  and  the  flag  of  the 
Union  floated  in  the  breeze  on  the  summit  of  Lookout 
Mountain.  The  rebel  army  was  now  pressed  in  on 
Missionary  Ridge,  with  Hooker  ready  to  move  on  its 
left  and  Sherman  already  grasping  its  right  flank. 
Everything  had  worked  as  if  the  will  of  the  master 
alone  had  been  consulted,  and  Grant  never  had  had 
such  good  reasons  for  feeling  that  he  would  be  master 
at  the  end. 

In  the  morning  of  the  25th  Hooker  swept  on 
across  the  valley,  being  several  hours  delayed  in  get- 
ting over  Chattanooga  Creek,  and  when  night  came 
had  driven  the  enemy  from  the  side  and  summit  of 
the  south  end  of  Missionary  Ridge,  having  captured 
several  thousands,  and  driven  others  into  the  embrace 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  437 

of  Thomas,  done  tall  that  he  had  been  commanded  to 
do,  and  stopped  because  the  enemy  had  disappeared. 

Early  in  the  morning  Sherman  had  renewed  the 
battle  on  the  left,  and  soon  extending  his  line  around 
the  ridge  into  Chickamauga  Valley  threatening  the 
rebel  communications,  attracted  Bragg's  attention, 
who  hurled  his  main  strength  against  him. 

From  Orchard  Knob  in  the  center  of  his  line 
Grant  saw  every  movement,  and  when  Sherman  had 
accomplished  just  what  he  had  desired,  caused  the 
rebel  General  to  weaken  his  center  for  the  support 
of  his  right  and  line  of  communications,  he  moved 
forward  his  center,  and  Thomas  was  soon  engaged  in 
a  desperate  struggle  up  the  side  of  Missionary  Ridge. 
The  nature  of  the  ground  and  the  deadly  fire  against 
them  soon  broke  up  the  lines,  and  in  fragments  and 
masses  his  men  climbed  the  furrowed  slope.  The 
summit  was  gained,  and  here  the  battle  became  a 
hand-to-hand  conflict.  On  came  Thomas's  enthusi- 
astic masses.  Bragg  saw  that  the  day  was  lost,  and 
with  his  fleeing  army  rushed  down  the  east  side  of 
the  ridge.  The  wonderful  battle  of  Chattanooga  was 
over,  the  most  brilliant  of  the  war. 

The  pursuit  of  Bragg  was  begun  on  the  morning 
of  the  26th,  but  this  amounted  to  little,  only  that 
Hooker  in  his  impatience  fell  upon  the  rebels  at 
Ringgold,  Georgia,  and  was  severely«repulsed.  The 
entire  Union  loss  in  the  Chattanooga  campaign  was 
nearly  six  thousand,  less  than  eight  hundred  being 
killed.  The  rebel  loss  was  about  ten  thousand,  over 
six  thousand  being  prisoners. 


438  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Sherman  was  at  once  started  to  Knoxville,  which 
he  reached  early  in  December,  compelling  Longstreet 
to  retreat  toward  Virginia ;  and  having  thus  relieved 
Burnside  he  marched  back  to  Chattanooga. 

A  vast  number  of  more  or  less  important  minor 
engagements  took  place  in  this  year,  and  up  to  the 
end  of  the  war,  on  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coasts,  in 
West  Virginia,  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  in  Mis- 
souri, and  other  parts  of  the  trans-Mississippi  region, 
of  which  little  need  be  said  in  this  work.  While  the 
result  of  the  war  would  have  been  the  same  without 
any  of  these  numerous  lesser  events,  they  all  played 
some  part  in  the  grand  total,  if  no  more  than  to  aid 
in  the  solution  of  the  general  question  of  endurance 
and  exhaustion.  Many  of  them  were  quite  brilliant 
on  both  sides,  and  deserving  of  record  in  a  detailed 
history  of  the  more  appalling  feiituies  of  a  bloody 
war,  if  it  may  not  be  morally  questionable  whether 
bloody,  wicked,  or  wrong  events  should  ever  be  per- 
petuated in  the  history  of  mankind,  or  made  a  part 
of  the  story  of  a  people. 

In  1863  General  Q.  A.  Gillmore  took  possession 
of  Morris  Island,  captured  Fort  Wagner  in  Charles- 
ton Hiirbor,  and  battered  down  Fort  Sumter  in  the 
most  wonderful  bombardment  the  world  ever  heard, 

perhaps. 

In  Missouri  the  Administration  had  great  difficulty 
in  the  management  of  political  affairs.  Two  loyal 
factions  arose,  which  never  could  be  harmonized.  In 
the  spring  of  1863  the  President  removed  General 
Curtis,  who  sided  with  one  of  the  factions.     From  the 


ABKAHAM  LINCOLN.  439 

following  lines  it  may  readily  be  seen  "how  annoying 
Missouri  difficulties  had  become  to  Mr.  Lincoln  : — 

"Your  dispatch  of  to-day  is  just  received.  It  is  very 
painful  to  me  that  you,  in  Missouri,  can  not,  or  will  not, 
settle  your  factional  quarrel  among  yourselves.  I  have 
been  tormented  with  it  beyond  endurance,  for  mouths,  by 
both  sides.  Neither  side  pays  the  least  respect  to  my  ap- 
peals to  your  reason.  I  am  now  compelled  to  take  hold 
of  the  case,  A.  Lincoln." 

The  President  then  sent  this  letter  to  General 
Schofield,  which  soon  got  into  print: — 

"  Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  \ 
"  May  27,  1863.         / 
"  General  J.  M.  Schofield  : — 

"Dear  Sir, — Having   removed   General   Curtis,  and 

assigned   you   to   the   command  of  the  Department  of  the 

Missouri,  I  think  it  may  be  of  some  advantage  to  me  to 

state  to  you  why  I   did   it.     I  did   not   remove   General 

Curtis  because  of  my  full  conviction   that   he  had  done 

wrong  by  commission  or  omission.     I  did  it  because  of  a 

conviction  in  my  mind  that  the  Union  men  of  Missouri, 

constituting,  when  united,  a  vast  majority  of  the  people, 

have   entered   into   a    persistent,  factious    quarrel    among 

themselves.  General    Curtis,  perhaps   not  of  choice,  being 

the  head  of  one  faction,  and  Governor  Gamble  that  of  the 

other.     After  months  of  labor  to  reconcile  the  difficulty, 

it  seemed   to  grow  worse   and  worse,  until   I   felt  it   my 

duty  to  break  it  up  somehow,  and  as  I  could  not  remove 

Governor  Gamble,  I  had  to  remove  General  Curtis.     Now 

that  you  are  in  the  position,  I  wish  you  to  undo  nothing 

merely  because   General   Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble  did 

it,  but  to  exercise   your   own  judgment,  and  do  right  foi 

the  public  interest.     Let  your  military  measures  be  strong 

enough  to  repel  the  invaders  and  keep  the  peace,  and  not 


440  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

SO  strong  as  to  unnecessarily  harass  and  persecute  the  peo- 
ple. It  is  a  difficult  role,  and  so  much  greater  will  be  the 
honor  if  you  perform  it  well.  If  both  factions,  or  neither, 
shall  abuse  you,  you  will  probably  be  about  right.  Be- 
ware of  being  assailed  by  one  and  praised  by  the  other. 
"Yours  truly,  A.  Lincoln." 

But  General  Schofield  failed  to  give  satisfaction, 
and  the  trouble  went  on.  The  Radicals  wanted  the 
President  to  send  Fremont  or  Ben  Butler  to  take 
charge  of  affairs  in  that  State.  In  August,  1863, 
Quantrell,  who  was  called  a  guerrilla,  entered  Law- 
rence, Kansas,  in  the  night,  with  a  band  of  followers, 
murdered  nenrly  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  citizens, 
and  burned  nearly  two  hundred  houses.  All  Ger- 
mans and  negroes,  especially,  were  killed,  who  could 
be  found  by  the  murderers.  The  action  Schofield 
took  in  this  Jiffair  greatly  displeased  the  Germans, 
who  were  disposed  to  be  dissatisfied  with  everybody 
who  failed  to  take  the  course  they  would  have 
chosen  for  him. 

In  the  following  characteristic,  if  not  wholly  digni- 
fied, letter,  Mr.  Lincoln  sets  out  the  case  with  suffi- 
cient interest  to  give  it  a  place  here  as  a  picture  of 
many  of  the  difficulties  under  which  he  labored : — 

"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,! 
"  October,  5,  1863.         / 

"  Hon.  Charles  Drake  and  Others,  Committee  : — 

"  Gentlemen, — Your  original  address,  presented  on  the 
30th  ult.,  and  the  four  supplementary  ones  presented  on  the 
3d  inst.,  have  been  carefully  considered.  I  hope  you  will  re- 
gard the  other  duties  claiming  my  attention,  together  with  the 
great  length  and  importance  of  these  documents,  as  constituting 
a  sufficient  apology  for  my  not  having  responded  sooner. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  441 

"These  papers,  framed  for  a  common  object,  consist  of  the 
things  demanded,  and  the  reasons  for  demanding  them. 

"The  things  demanded  are: — 

''First  That  General  Schofield  shall  be  relieved,  and  Gen- 
eral Butler  be  appointed  as  Commander  of  the  Military  De- 
partment of  Missouri. 

''Second.  That  the  system  of  enrolled  militia  in  Missouri  may 
be  broken  up,  and  national  forces  be  substituted  for  it ;  and, 

"  Third.  That  at  elections,  persons  may  not  be  allowed  to 
vote  who  are  not  entitled  by  law  to  do  so. 

"Among  the  reasons  given,  enough  of  suffering  and  wrong 
to  Union  men,  is  certainly,  and  I  suppose  truly,  stated.  Yet 
the  whole  case,  as  presented,  fails  to  convince  me  that  General 
Schofield,  or  the  enrolled  militia,  is  responsible  for  that  suffer- 
ing and  wrong.  The  whole  can  be  explained  on  a  more  char- 
itable, and,  as  I  think,  a  more  rational  hypothesis. 

"We  are  in  civil  war.  In  such  cases  there  always  is  a 
main  question ;  but  in  this  case  that  question  is  a  perplexing 
compound — Union  and  slavery.  It  thus  becomes  a  question 
not  of  two  sides  merely,  but  of  at  least  four  sides,  even  among 
those  who  are  for  the  Union,  saying  nothing  of  those  who  are 
against  it.  Thus,  those  who  are  for  the  Union  with,  but  not 
without  slavery ;  those  for  it  ivithout  but  not  with;  those  for  it 
tvith  or  ivithout,  but  prefer  it  with;  and  those  for  it  with  or  with- 
out, but  prefer  it  ivithout. 

"Among  these,  again,  is  a  subdivision  of  those  who  are  for 
gradual,  but  not  for  immediate,  and  those  who  are  for  immediate, 
but  not  for  gradual,  extinction  of  slavery. 

"It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  all  these  shades  of  opinion  and 
even  more,  may  be  sincerely  entertained  by  honest  and  truthful 
men.  Yet  all  being  for  the  Union,  by  reason  of  these  differ- 
ences each  will  prefer  a  different  way  of  sustaining  the  Union. 
At  once,  sincerity  is  questioned,  and  motives  are  assailed. 
Actual  war  coming,  blood  grows  hot,  and  blood  is  spilled. 
Thought  is  forced  from  old  channels  into  confusion.  Deception 
breeds  and  thrives.  Confidence  dies,  and  universal  suspicion 
reigns.  Each  man  feels  an  impulse  to  kill  his  neighbor,  lest  he 
be  killed  by  him.  Revenge  and  retaliation  follow.  And  all 
this,  as  before  said,  may  be  among  honest  men  only.     But  this 


442  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

is  not  all.  Every  foul  bird  comes  abroad,  and  every  dirty  rep- 
tile rises  up.  These  add  crime  to  confusion.  Strong  measures 
deemed  indispensable  but  harsh  at  best,  such  men  make  worse 
by  maladministration.  Murders  for  old  grudges,  and  murders 
for  pelf,  proceed  under  any  cloak  that  will  best  serve  for  the 
occasion. 

"These  causes  amply  account  for  what  has  occurred  in 
Missouri,  without  ascribing  it  to  the  weakness  or  wickedness  of 
any  general.  The  newspaper  files,  those  chroniclers  of  current 
events,  will  show  that  the  evils  now  complained  of  were  quite 
as  prevalent  under  Fremont,  Hunter,  Halleck,  and  Curtis,  as 
under  Schofield.  If  the  former  had  greater  force  opposed  to 
them,  they  also  had  greater  force  with  which  to  meet  it.  When 
the  organized  rebel  army  left  the  State,  the  main  Federal 
force  had  to  go  also,  leaving  the  department  commander  at 
home,  relatively  no  stronger  than  before.  Without  disparaging 
any,  I  affirm  with  confidence,  that  no  commander  of  that  de- 
partment has,  in  proportion  to  his  means,  done  better  than 
General  Schofield, 

"The  first  specific  charge  against  General  Schofield  is,  that 
the  enrolled  militia  was  placed  under  his  command,  whereas  it 
had  not  been  placed  under  the  command  of  General  Curtis. 
The  fact  is,  I  believe,  true ;  but  you  do  not  point  out,  nor  can 
I  conceive,  how  that  did,  or  could,  injure  loyal  men  or  the 
Union  cause. 

"  You  charge  that  General  Curtis  being  superseded  by  Gen- 
eral Schofield,  Franklin  A.  Dick  was  superseded  by  James  O. 
Broadhead  as  Provost-Marshal-General.  No  very  specific  show- 
ing is  made  as  to  how  this  did  or  could  injure  the  Union  cause. 
It  recalls,  however,  the  condition  of  things,  as  presented  to  me, 
which  led  to  a  change  of  commander  of  that  department. 

"To  restrain  contraband  intelligence  and  trade,  a  system  of 
searches,  seizures,  permits,  and  passes,  had  been  introduced,  I 
think,  by  General  Fremont.  When  General  Halleck  came,  he 
found  and  continued  the  system,  and  added  an  order,  applica- 
ble to  some  parts  of  the  State,  to  levy  and  collect  contributions 
from  noted  rebels,  to  compensate  losses,  and  relieve  destitution 
caused  by  the  Rebellion.  The  action  of  General  Fremont  and 
General  Halleck,  as  stated,  constituted  a  sort  of  system  which 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  443 

General  Curtis  found  in  full  operation  when  he  took  command 
of  the  department.  Tliat  there  was  a  necessity  for  something 
of  the  sort  was  clear ;  but  that  it  could  only  be  justified  by 
stern  necessity,  and  that  it  was  liable  to  great  abuse  in  admin- 
istration, was  equally  clear.  Agents  to  execute  it,  contrary  to 
the  great  prayer,  were  led  into  temptation.  Some  might,  while 
others  would  not,  resist  that  temptation.  It  was  not  possible 
to  hold  any  to  a  very  strict  accountability  ;  and  those  yielding 
to  the  temptation,  would  sell  permits  and  passes  to  those  who 
would  pay  most  and  most  readily  for  them ;  and  would  seize 
property  and  collect  levies  in  the  aptest  way  to  fill  their  own 
pockets.  Money  being  the  object,  the  man  having  money, 
whether  loyal  or  disloyal,  would  be  a  victim.  This  practice 
doubtless  existed  to  some  extent,  and  it  was  a  real  additional 
evil  that  it  could  be,  and  was,  plausibly  charged  to  exist  in 
greater  extent  than  it  did. 

"  When  General  Curtis  took  command  of  the  department. 
Mr.  Dick,  against  whom  I  never  knew  anything  to  allege,  had 
general  charge  of  this  system.  A  controversy  in  regard  to  it 
rapidly  grew  into  almost  unmanageable  proportions.  One  side 
ignored  the  necessity  and  magnified  the  evils  of  the  system, 
while  the  other  ignored  the  evils  and  magnified  the  necessity : 
and  each  bitterly  assailed  the  other.  I  could  not  fail  to  see 
that  the  controversy  enlarged  in  the  same  proportion  as  the 
professed  Union  men  there  distinctly  took  sides  in  two  opposing 
political  parties.  I  exhausted  my  wits,  and  very  nearly  my 
patience  also,  in  efforts  to  convince  both  that  the  evils  they 
charged  on  each  other  were  inherent  in  the  case,  and  could  not 
be  cured  by  giving  either  party  a  victory  over  the  other. 

"  Plainly,  the  irritating  system  was  not  to  be  perpetual ; 
and  it  was  plausibly  urged  that  it  could  be  modified  at  once 
with  advantage.  The  case  could  scarcely  be  worse,  and  whether 
it  could  be  made  better  could  only  be  determined  by  a  trial. 
In  this  view,  and  not  to  ban  or  brand  General  Curtis,  or  to 
give  a  victory  to  any  party,  I  made  the  change  of  commander 
for  the  department.  I  now  learn  tliat  soon  after  this  change 
Mr.  Dick  was  removed,  and  that  Mr.  Broadhead,  a  gentleman 
of  no  less  good  character,  was  put  in  the  place.  The  mere 
fact  of  this  change   is  more   distinctly  complained  of  than  is 


444  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

any  conduct  of  the  new  officer,  or  other  consequences  of  the 
change. 

"I  gave  the  new  commander  no  instructions  as  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  system  mentioned,  beyond  what  is  contained 
in  the  private  letter  afterward  surreptitiously  published,  in  which 
I  directed  him  to  act  solely  for  the  public  good,  and  independ- 
ently of  both  parties.  Neither  anything  you  have  presented  me, 
nor  anything  I  have  otherwise  learned,  has  convinced  me  that 
he  has  been  unfaithful  to  his  charge. 

"Imbecility  is  urged  as  one  cause  for  removing  General 
Schofield,  and  the  late  massacre  at  Lawrence,  Kansas,  is 
pressed  as  evidence  of  that  imbecility.  To  my  mind  that  fact 
scarcely  tends  to  prove  the  proposition.  That  massacre  is  only 
an  example  of  what  Griersou,  John  Morgan,  and  many  others, 
might  have  repeatedly  done  on  their  respective  raids,  had  they 
chosen  to  incur  the  personal  hazard,  and  possessed  the  fiendish 
hearts  to  do  it. 

"  The  charge  is  made  that  General  Schofield,  on  purpose  to 
protect  the  Lawrence  murderers,  would  not  allow  them  to  be 
pursued  into  Missouri.  While  no  punishment  could  be  too 
sudden  or  too  severe  for  those  murderers,  I  am  well  satisfied 
that  the  preventing  of  the  threatened  remedial  raid  into  Mis- 
souri was  the  only  way  to  avoid  an  indiscriminate  massacre 
there,  including  probably  more  innocent  than  guilty.  Instead 
of  condemning,  I  therefore  approve  what  I  understand  General 
Schofield  did  in  that  respect. 

*'  The  charge  that  General  Schofield  has  purposely  withheld 
protection  from  loyal  people,  and  purposely  facilitated  the 
objects  of  the  disloyal,  are  altogether  beyond  my  power  of 
belief.  I  do  not  arraign  the  veracity  of  gentlemen  as  to  the 
facts  complained  of;  but  I  do  more  than  question  the  judgment 
which  would  infer  that  these  facts  occurred  in  accordance  with 
the  purposes  of  General  Schofield. 

"  With  my  present  views,  I  must  decline  to  remove  General 
Schofield.  In  this  I  decide  nothing  against  General  Butler. 
I  sincerely  wish  it  were  convenient  to  assign  him  a  suitable 
command. 

"In  order  to  meet  some  existing  evils,  I  have  addressed  a 
letter  of  instruction    to  General  Schofield,  a  copy  of  which  I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  445 

inclose  to  you.  As  to  the  '  enrolled  militia,'  I  shall  endeavor 
to  ascertain,  better  than  I  now  know,  what  is  its  exact  value. 
Let  me  now  say,  however,  that  your  proposal  to  substitute 
natioual  force  for  the  '  enrolled  militia,'  implies  that,  in  your 
judgment,  the  latter  is  doing  something  which  needs  to  be  done  ; 
and  if  so,  the  proposition  to  throw  that  force  away,  and  to 
supply  its  place  by  bringing  other  forces  from  the  field  where 
they  are  urgently  needed,  seems  to  me  very  extraordinary. 
Whence  shall  they  come  ?  Shall  they  be  withdrawn  from 
Banks,  or  Grant,  or  Steele,  or  Rosecrans? 

"  Few  things  have  been  so  grateful  to  my  anxious  feelings, 
as  when  in  June  last  the  local  force  in  Missouri  aided  General 
Schofield  to  so  promptly  send  a  large  general  force  to  the 
relief  of  General  Grant,  then  investing  Vicksburg,  and  menaced 
from  without  by  General  Johnston.  Was  this  all  wrong? 
Should  the  enrolled  militia  then  have  been  broken  up,  and 
General  Herron  kept  from  Grant,  to  police  Missouri?  So  far 
from  finding  cause  to  object,  I  confess  to  a  sympathy  for  what- 
ever relieves  our  general  force  in  Missouri,  and  allows  it  to 
serve  elsewhere. 

"  I  therefore,  as  at  present  advised,  can  not  attempt  the 
destruction  of  the  enrolled  militia  of  Missouri.  I  may  add  that 
the  force  being  under  the  national  military  control,  it  is  also 
within  the  proclamation  with  regard  to  the  habeas  corpus. 

"  I  concur  in  the  propriety  of  your  request  in  regard  to 
elections,  and  have,  as  you  see,  directed  General  Schofield  ac- 
cordingly. I  do  not  feel  justified  to  enter  upon  the  broad  field 
you  present  in  regard  to  the  political  differences  between  Radi- 
cals and  Conservatives.  From  time  to  time  I  have  done  and 
.':aid  what  appeared  to  me  proper  to  do  and  say.  The  public 
knows  it  well.  It  obliges  nobody  to  follow  me,  and  I  trust  it 
obliges  me  to  follow  nobody.  The  Radicals  and  Conservatives 
each  agree  with  me  in  some  things  and  disagree  in  others.  I 
could  wish  both  to  agree  with  me  in  all  things  ;  for  then  they 
would  agree  with  each  other,  and  would  be  too  strong  for  any 
foe  from  any  quarter.  They,  however,  choose  to  do  otherwise, 
and  I  do  not  question  their  right.  I,  too,  shall  do  what  seems 
to  be  my  duty.  I  hold  whoever  commands  in  Missouri  or  else- 
where responsible  to  me,  and  not  to  either  Radicals  or  Conserv- 


446  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

atives.     It  is  my  duty  to  hear  all;  but  at  last  I  must,  witliin 
my  sphere,  judge  what  to  do  and  what  to  forbear. 

"  Your  obedient  servant,  A.  Lincoln." 

.  And  notwithstanding  all  these  efforts,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1864,  the  President  had  to  remove  Schofield ; 
and  Rosecruns  was  put  in  his  place.  The  new  com-' 
mander  soon  had  his  hands  full  of  difficulties,  the 
"Sons  of  Liberty"  or  "Knights  of  the  Golden 
Circle "  crossing  his  path,  find  other  evils  gathering 
around  him.  Sterling  Price  again  appeared  in  the 
State  in  the  fall  of  1864,  but  was  soon  beaten  out ; 
not,  however,  until  he  had  picked  up  a  great  many 
recruits,  and  done  much  mischief  otherwise. 

By  this  time  a  large  number  of  negro  troops  had 
been  organized,  and  their  merit  well  and  favorably 
tested  at  Port  Hudson,  under  Gillmore  in  Charleston 
Harbor,  and  under  the  brave  but  unskillful  General 
Truinan  Seymour,  in  Florida,  as  well  as  at  different 
times  and  places  to  the  end. 

In  the  fall  of  1862  the  rebel  authorities  ordered 
the  execution  of  all  slaves  found  in  arms  against 
them ;  and  in  his  message  in  January,  1863,  Jeffer- 
son Davis  announced  that  he  should  deliver  over  to 
the  States  all  captured  Federal  officers  who  were 
found  in  command  of  negro  soldiers,  to  be  dealt  with 
according  to  the  laws  of  those  States  for  punishing 
insurrections  of  slaves.  The  rebel  "  Congress  "  de- 
creed that  such  persons  shouhl  be  put  to  death,  and 
all  negroes  and  mulattoes  found  in  arms  should  be 
dealt  with  by  the  States  according  to  their  laws; 
that  is,  they  were  all  to  be  murdered. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  447 


All  these   things  brought  from   Mr.   Lincoln   this 


order  : — 


'Executive  Mansion,  Washington,"* 


"July  30,  18(33. 

"  It  is  the  duty  of  every  governmeut  to  give  protection 
to  its  citizens,  of  whatever  class,  color,  or  condition,  and 
especially  to  those  who  are  duly  organized  as  soldiers  in 
the  public  service.  The  law  of  nations,  and  the  usages 
and  customs  of  war,  as  carried  on  by  civilized  powers, 
permit  no  distinction  as  to  color  in  the  treatment  of  pris- 
oners of  war  as  public  enemies.  To  sell  or  enslave  any 
captured  person,  on  account  of  his  color,  and  for  no  oifense 
against  the  laws  of  war,  is  a  relapse  into  barbarism,  and  a 
crime  against  the  civilization  of  the  age. 

"The  Government  of  the  United  States  will  give  the 
same  protection  to  all  its  soldiers ;  and  if  the  enemy  shall 
sell  or  enslave  any  one  because  of  his  color,  the  offense 
shall  be  punished  by  retaliation  upon  the  enemy's  prisoners 
in  our  possession. 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered  that  for  every  soldier  of  the 
United  States  killed  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  a 
rebel  soldier  shall  be  executed  ;  and  for  every  one  enslaved 
by  the  enemy,  or  sold  into  slavery,  a  rebel  soldier  shall 
be  placed  at  hard  labor  on  public  works,  and  continued  at 
such  labor  until  the  other  shall  be  released  and  receive 
the  treatment  due  to  a  prisoner  of  war. 

"Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  By  order  of  Secretary  of  War. 

"  E.  D.  Townsend,  Assistant  Adjutant-General  " 

While  this  checked  the  cruelty  practiced  toward 
negro  soldiers  to  some  extent,  the  whole  affair  led  to 
the  suspension  of  the  exchange  of  prisoners  of  any 
kind.  And  this  gave  rise  to  the  horrors  of  Ander- 
sonville,  Libby,  nnd  other  rebel  prisons.  The 
proposition  to  renew  the  exchange  of  prisoners  was 


448  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

made  by  thti  rebels  in  the  summer  of  18G4,  in  which 
they  were  actuated  by  two  or  three  motives.  They 
needed  all  their  able-bodied  men,  and  \mder  the  old 
plan  of  paroling  prisoners  they  returned  theirs  to  the 
army  without  w;iiting  for  exchange.  Then,  as  their 
military  strength  began  to  crumble  in  the  West,  and 
Sherman  began  his  march  toward  the  Atlantic,  they 
saw  that  the  prisoners  in  the  pens  in  the  South  would 
receive  his  earliest  attention.  And,  finally,  they 
wanted  them  to  return  to  their  homes  to  vote  for 
McClellan,  offering  freedom  to  all  who  would  agree 
to  vote  the  Democratic  ticket.  It  may  also  be 
claimed  that  there  was  a  moral  compunction  involved 
in  the  disposition  to  resume  the  exchange,  as  Mr. 
Chilton,  the  Inspector-General,  submitted  it  as  his 
opinion  to  the  rebel  war  department  that  "  the  con- 
dition of  aifairs  at  Andersonville  is  a  reproach  to  us 
as  a  nation." 

Still  the  cruelty  towards  the  negro  soldiers  was 
continued  at  every  practicable  opportunity,  and  under 
every  pretext.  In  the  spring  of  1863,  N.  B.  Forest, 
a  brutally  coarse  and  uneducated  rebel  officer, 
startled  the  country  by  getting  possession  of  Fort 
Pillow  by  a  piece  of  unsoldiery  trickery,  and  then 
putting  to  death  the  greater  part  of  the  soldiers  after 
they  had  thrown  down  their  arms.  The  garrison 
was  composed  of  five  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
Roldiers  of  whom  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  were 
colored.  Not  even  the  women  and  children  were 
spared,  but  all  were  murdered,  heedless  of  cries  for 
mercy. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  449 

A  very  extensive  Indian  war  broke  out  in  1862, 
and  this  for  some  time  made  a  heavy  demand  on  the 
resources  of  the  Government.  At  the  outset  of  the 
Rebellion  some  of  the  Indians  in  the  Territory  were 
induced  by  rebel  agents  to  join  in  the  war  for  slavery, 
many  of  them  being  negro  slave-owners.  Through 
these  rebel  Indian  allies,  and,  perhaps,  by  other  in- 
fluences, the  Indians  of  the  western  border  became 
generally  unfriendly  or  hostile.  And  finally  the 
Sioux  in  Minnesota  fell  to  murdering  tho  settlers 
and  burning  their  houses.  They  attacked  New  Ulm, 
and  Yellow  Medicine  on  the  Minnesota  River,  and 
even  Forts  Ridgeley  and  Abercrombie ;  but  by  the 
fall  of  1863  they  were  beaten  and  brought  to  terms 
of  peace. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  the  naval  power  of  the 
United  States  had  reached  magnificent  proportions. 
An  earnest,  able,  and  unflinchingly  true  inan  was  at 
the  head  of  the  Navy  arm  of  the  Government.  In 
silent,  unwearying,  and  watchful  zeal  he  pressed  for- 
ward the  great  work  assigned  to  him.  At  the  dawn 
of  peace  more  than  seven  hundred  vessels  were 
under  the  authority  of  the  Department,  and  nearly 
a  hundred  of  them  were  iron-clads.  Seven  thousand 
six  hundred  men  were  in  the  service  at  the  begin- 
ning, and  nearly  fifty-two  thousand  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  with  many  thousands  more,  artisans  and 
"  laborers,"  in  the  navy-yards.  The  work  of  this 
branch  of  the  Government  mainly  took  three  natural 
directions  :  operations  at  sea,  operations  on  the  rivers, 
and  the  coast  blockade.     The  great  naval  picket-line 

29— Q 


450  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

extended  from  Chesapeake  Bay  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Grande;  and  to  England,  especially,  the  most 
wondeiful  feat  of  the  war  was  the  success  of  this 
blockade.  After  the  Monitor  was  launched  and  had 
fought  her  first  battle  in  Hampton  Roads,  the  ques- 
tion of  supremacy,  if  there  was  any,  between  the 
Government  and  the  insurgents  was  settled  forever. 
Still  the  perseverance  of  the  rebels  was  great,  and 
many  severe  conflicts  took  place  before  they  aban- 
doned as  utterly  futile  their  hope  of  a  navy.  Even 
after  their  pretensions  in  this  way  were  broken  by 
the  destruction  of  all  their  vessels  on  the  vast  coast, 
and  the  numerous  rivers,  the  blockade  was  a  difficult 
task.  France  and  England  and  other  avaricious  na- 
tions were  constantly  looking  for  opportunities  with 
hundreds  of  vessels  to  drop  in  at  unguarded  gates 
with  supplies  for  the  rebels.  Especially  was  the  far- 
off  coast  of  Texas  beset  with  blockade-runners.  Be- 
fore the  war  an  occasional  foreign  vessel  had  entered 
the  Rio  Grande  for  Matamoras.  Now  hundreds 
gathered  at  this  point;  but  it  was  well  understood 
that  their  real  object  was  intercourse  with  the  rebels 
at  Brownsville. 

General  Butler  had  scarcely  begun  his  phenomenal 
rule  of  a  stubborn  people  at  New  Orleans  when  the 
President  declared  that  port  open  to  the  world.  So 
great  was  the  desire  of  the  Government  to  meet  ex- 
actions and  expectations  that  this  policy  was  pur- 
sued with  ports  of  any  consequence  captured  on  the 
long  naval  picket-line.  While  this  relieved  the  ap- 
parent rigor  of  the  blockade,  it  increased  the  oppor- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  451 

tunities  of  the  rebels  to  reach  their  foreign  aiders 
and  abettors.  Hardly  a  battle  on  any  of  the  great 
rivers  or  on  the  Atlantic  or  Gulf  coast  was  fought 
without  the  aid  of  the  n.-i vy,  and  many  battles  never 
could  have  been  fought  without  that  aid.  The  sailors 
were  often  turned  into  soldiers,  and  where  the  great 
guns  of  the  vessels  could  not  be  otherwise  serviceable 
they  were  hauled  ashore  and  placed  in  the  siege-lines. 
Many  of  the  most  daring,  patriotic,  and  able  men  in 
the  country  were  engaged  in  this  rather  inglorious 
branch  of  the  national  power.  And  nowhere  was  the 
Nation's  honor  more  nobly  maintained  than  by  the 
navy  and  the  officers  of  the  Department. 

The  tendency  of  Mr.  Seward  to  take  to  himself 
the  general  direction  of  all  departments  of  the  Ad- 
ministration was  stubbornly  resisted  by  the  less 
cautious  and  politic  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  whom 
age  had  not  dimmed  the  fire  of  life.  Mr.  Seward's 
evil  practice  was  to  precede  any  action  of  the  Ad- 
ministration by  a  course  of  conduct  on  his  own  part 
in  which  he  expected  the  Administration  to  acquiesce. 
One  of  the  many  instances  of  this  kind  was  his  assur- 
ances to  Lyons,  the  British  Minister  at  Washington, 
that  the  mail-bags  on  captured  blockade-runners 
should  be  sent  to  their  destination  without  being 
opened.  This  Mr.  Welles  resisted  not  only  as  an  in- 
terference with  the  affairs  of  his  Department,  but 
also  as  abandoning  to  pirates  and  (he  abettors  of  the 
Rebellion  what  would  often  furnish  the  only  clew  to 
their  condemnation.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  was  finally 
induced,  from  motives  of  policy  or  necessity,  to  side 


452  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

with  Mr.  Seward  in  this  important  matter  at  a  time 
when  this  Nation  was  always  on  the  point  of  an 
open  rupture  with  England. 

When  the  rebels  had  exhausted  their  own  efforts 
and  resources  to  build  war-vessels,  England  came  to 
their  aid.  With  the  greatest  difficidty  Mr.  Adams 
prevailed  on  the  British  Ministr}'^  to  stop  the  "Laird 
rams "  which  were  preparing  to  enter  the  rebel 
service,  assuring  "  Lord "  Russell  that,  "  at  this 
moment,  when  one  of  the  iron-clad  vessels  is  on  the 
point  of  departure  from  this  kingdom  on  its  hostile 
err.'ind  against  the  United  States,  it  would  be  super- 
fluous for  me  to  point  out  to  your  lordship  that  this 
is  war." 

Still  the  British  Ministry  and  the  "governing 
class"  generally  in  England  were  favorable  to  the 
cause  of  the  Rebellion,  and  what  aid  could  be  given 
it  in  ship-building  was  given.  Indeed,  England  took 
up  the  cause  of  the  Rebellion  on  the  sea,  and  was 
beaten. 

Although  the  rebels  constructed  themselves  sev- 
eral more  or  less  formidable  war-vessels,  as  the  Mer- 
rimac^  the  Tennessee,  the  Albemarle,  the  Louisiana,  the 
3fanassas,  the  Mississippi,  the  Atlanta,  the  Virginia,  the 
Savannah,  the  Sumter,  the  Nashville,  nnd  the  Arkan- 
sas, yet  it  was  reserved  for  England  to  furnish  them 
some  of  the  most  powerful  sea-going  vessels  of  the 
period.  Among  these  were  the  Florida,  the  Talla- 
hassee, the  Chickamaiiga,  the  Georgia,  the  Shenandoah, 
and  the  Alabama.  With  these  piratical  vessels 
American    commerce   was    driven   from   the    oceans. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  453 

Several  hundred  merchant-vessels  were  captured  by 
them,  and  millions  of  property  destroyed.  This  was 
a  part  of  England's  share  in  the  great  Rebellion. 

One  of  the  great  events  of  the  war  was  the  con- 
quest of  the  Merrimaclt  (Merrimac)  by  the  Ericsson 
Monitor.  Although  this  denoted  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  the  construction  of  war-ships,  the  great 
expectations  for  the  monitors  were  hardly  realized 
in  the  subsequent  history  of  the  war,  however  the 
theory  of  the  English  broadside  was  damaged. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  naval  affair  of  the 
war,  on  account  of  its  double  signification  and  bearing, 
was  the  destruction  of  the  Alabama.  This  vessel  was 
built  at  Liverpool  by  a  member  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, and  against  the  remonstrance  of  Mr.  Adams, 
was  allowed  to  go  to  sea  in  the  fall  of  1862.  Her 
armament  and  her  crew  were  entirely  English,  and 
her  captain  was  Raphael  Semmes.  She  cleared  the 
seas  wherever  she  went,  and  it  began  to  be  the  boast 
of  England,  and  the  rebels,  that  the  United  States 
had  nothing  to  contend  with  her,  and  the  fear  that 
this  was  true  was  not  without  supporters  at  home. 
At  last  early  in  June,  1864,  she  went  into  the  harbor 
of  Cherbourg,  France.  On  the  19th  of  that  month 
the  United  States  war-ship,  Kearsarge,  of  about  equal 
size  and  armament,  commanded  by  Captuin  John  A. 
Winslow,  appeared  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor,  and 
offere4  battle.  However  much  Semmes  wanted  to 
avoid  this  conflict,  he  could  not  do  it.  The  British 
and  French  sympathizers  expected  him  to  fight. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  about  the  result.     Was  not 


454  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  Alabama  a  British  built  ship;  was  not  her  crew 
composed  of  trained  English  artillerists ;  had  she  not 
an  English  armament ;  and  had  she  not  mainly  sailed 
under  the  British  flng?  The  Kearsarge  moved  sev- 
eral miles  out,  beyond  the  line  of  jurisdiction,  and 
then  turning  upon  the  Alabama,  the  battle  began.  In 
one  hour  and  two  minutes  the  shattered  Anglo-rebel 
ship  went  down;  while  the  Kearsarge,  with  her  crew, 
received  little  damage,  although  the  trained  British 
artillerists  had  fired  at  her  three  hundred  and  seventy 
shot  and  shell.  The  English  steam-yacht,  the  Deer- 
hound,  having  come  out  of  the  harbor  to  see  the  fight, 
was  invited  to  aid  in  picking  up  the  Alabama  s  crew, 
which  she  did,  and  in  her  share  got  Semmes,  with 
whom  she  made  off.  But  this  was  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  fact  that  England  had  lost  her  supremacy 
on  the  sea.  If  the  South  was  beaten  and  mortified, 
England,  her  ally,  was  doubly  humiliated. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  455 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

1863— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— CONGRESS  IN  THE  WIN- 
TER OF  1863— THE  MESSAGE— THE  FUGITIVE  SLAVE 
LAW  REPEALED  — MR.  LINCOLN'S  PROCLAMATIONS 
AND  MISTAKES. 

CONGRESS  nssembled  ("  first  session  of  Thirty- 
eighth")  agjiin  on  the  7th  of  December,  1863, 
and  sat  until  July  4,  1864.  Although  several  States, 
notably  Ohio  and  New  York,  had  increased  their  op- 
position or  Democratic  representation,  the  political 
complexion  of  the  two  Houses  was  not  much  changed 
at  this  time,  the  Republicans  and  "  Unconditional 
Union  Men  "  having  a  large  majority. 

Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana,  was  elected  Speaker 
of  the  House,  receiving  one  hundred  and  one  votes. 
Samuel  S.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  received  forty-two  of  the 
Democratic  votes,  and  thirty-nine  others  were  scat- 
tered, and  six  members  were  absent  or  did  not  vote. 
Edward  McPherson,  of  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania, 
was  elected  clerk.  On  the  following  day  the  Presi- 
dent sent  in  his 

THIRD  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: — 
Another  year  of  health,  and  of  sufficiently  abundant  har- 
vests, has  passed.     For  these,  and  especially  for  the  improved 


456  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

condition  of  our  national  affairs,  our  renewed  and  profouudest 
gratitude  to  God  is  due. 

We  remain  in  peace  and  friendship  with  foreign  powers^ 

The  efforts  of  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  in- 
volve us  in  foreign  wars,  to  aid  an  inexcusable  insurrection, 
have  been  unavailing.  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  government, 
as  was  justly  expected,  have  exercised  their  authority  to  prevent 
the  departure  of  new  hostile  expeditions  from  British  ports. 
The  emperor  of  France  has,  by  a  like  proceeding,  promptly 
vindicated  the  neutrality  which  he  proclaimed  at  the  begiuniug 
of  the  contest.  Questions  of  great  intricacy  and  importance 
have  arisen  out  of  the  blockade  and  other  belligerent  opera- 
tions, between  the  Government  and  several  of  the  maritime 
powers,  but  they  have  been  discussed,  and,  as  far  as  was  pos- 
sible, accommodated  in  a  spirit  of  frankness,  justice,  and  mutual 
good-will.  It  is  especially  gratifying  that  our  prize  courts,  by 
the  impartiality  of  their  adjudications,  have  commanded  the  re- 
spect and  confidence  of  maritime  powers. 

The  supplemental  treaty  between  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade, 
made  on  the  17th  day  of  February  last,  has  been  duly  ratified 
and  carried  into  execution.  It  is  believed  that,  so  far  as  Amer- 
ican ports  and  American  citizens  are  concerned,  that  inhuman 
and  odious  traffic  has  been  brought  to  an  end. 

I  shall  submit,  for  the  consideration  of  the  Senate,  a  con- 
vention for  the  adjustment  of  possessory  claims  in  AVashington 
Territory,  arising  out  of  the  treaty  of  the  15th  June,  1846, 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  which  have 
been  the  source  of  some  disquiet  among  the  citizens  of  that  now 
rapidly  improving  part  of  the  country. 

A  novel  and  important  question,  involving  the  extent  of  the 
maritime  jurisdiction  of  Spain  in  the  waters  which  surround  the 
island  of  Cuba,  has  been  debated  without  reaching  an  agree- 
ment, and  it  is  proposed,  in  an  amicable  spirit,  to  refer  it  to  the 
arbitrament  of  a  friendly  power.  A  convention  for  that  pur- 
pose will  be  submitted  to  the  Senate. 

I  have  thought  it  proper,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Senate,  to  concur  with  the  interested  commercial  powers  in  an 
arrangement  for  the  liquidation  of  the  Scheldt  dues  u^ou  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  457 

principles  which  have  been  heretofore  adopted  in  regard  to  the 
imposts  upon  navigation  in  the  waters  of  Denmark. 

The  long  pending  controversy  between  this  Government  and 
that  of  Chili,  touching  the  seizure  at  Sitana,  in  Peru,  by  Chilian 
officers,  of  a  large  amount  in  treasure  belonging  to  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  has  been  brought  to  a  close  by  the  award  of 
his  majesty  the  king  of  the  Belgians,  to  whose  arbitration  the 
question  was  referred  by  the  j)arties.  The  subject  was  thor- 
oughly and  patiently  examined  by  that  justly  respected  magis- 
trate, and  although  the  sum  awarded  to  the  claimants  may  not 
have  been  as  large  as  they  expected,  there  is  no  reason  to  dis- 
trust the  wisdom  of  his  majesty's  decision.  Tliat  decision  was 
promptly  complied  with  by  Chili,  when  intelligence  in  regard  to 
it  reached  that  country. 

The  joint  commission,  under  the  Act  of  the  last  session,  for 
carrying  into  effect  the  convention  with  Peru  on  the  subject  of 
claims,  has  been  organized  at  Lima,  and  is  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness intrusted  to  it. 

Difficulties  concerning  interoceanic  transit  through  Nica- 
ragua are  in  course  of  amicable  adjustment. 

In  conformity  with  principles  set  forth  in  my  last  annual 
message,  I  have  received  a  representative  from  the  United 
States  of  Colombia,  and  have  accredited  a  minister  to  that  Re- 
public. 

Incidents  occurring  iu  the  progress  of  our  Civil  War  have 
forced  upon  my  attention  the  uncertain  state  of  international 
questions  touching  the  rights  of  foreigners  in  this  country  and 
of  United  States  citizens  abroad.  In  regard  to  some  govern- 
ments these  rights  are  at  least  partially  defined  by  treaties.  In 
no  instance,  however,  is  it  expressly  stipulated  that,  in  the 
event  of  civil  war,  a  foreigner  residing  iu  this  country,  within 
the  lines  of  the  insurgents,  is  to  be  exempted  from  the  rule 
which  classes  him  as  a  belligerent,  in  whose  behalf  the  govern- 
ment of  his  country  can  not  expect  any  privileges  or  immuni- 
ties distinct  from  that  character.  I  regret  to  say,  however, 
that  such  claims  have  been  put  forward,  and,  in  some  instances, 
in  behalf  of  foreigners  who  have  lived  in  the  United  States  the 
greater  part  of  their  lives. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  many  persons  born  in  foreign 


458  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

countries,  who  have  declared  their  intentions  to  become  citizens, 
or  who  have  been  fully  naturalized,  have  evaded  the  military 
duty  required  of  them  by  denying  the  fact,  and  thereby  throw- 
ing upon  the  Government  the  burden  of  proof.  It  has  been 
found  difficult  or  impracticable  to  obtain  this  proof,  from  the  want 
of  guides  to  the  proper  sources  of  information.  These  might  be 
supplied  by  requiring  clerks  of  courts,  where  declarations  of 
intentions  may  be  made  or  naturalizations  effected,  to  send, 
periodically,  lists  of  the  names  of  the  persons  naturalized,  or 
declaring  their  intention  to  become  citizens,  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  in  whose  Department  those  names  might  be  ar- 
ranged and  printed  for  general  information. 

There  is  also  reason  to  beheve  that  foreigners  frequently 
become  citizens  of  the  United  States  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
evading  duties  imposed  by  the  laws  of  their  native  countries, 
to  which,  on  becoming  naturalized  here,  they  at  once  repair, 
and,  though  never  returning  to  the  United  States,  they  still 
claim  the  interposition  of  this  Government  as  citizens.  Many 
altercations  and  great  prejudices  have  heretofore  arisen  out  of 
this  abuse.  It  is  therefore  submitted  to  your  serious  consider- 
ation. It  might  be  advisable  to  fix  a  limit  beyond  which  no 
citizen  of  the  United  States  residing  abroad  may  claim  the  in- 
terposition of  his  Government. 

The  right  of  suflTrage  has  often  been  assumed  and  exercised 
by  aliens,  under  pretenses  of  naturalization,  which  they  have 
disavowed  when  drafted  into  the  military  service.  I  submit  the 
expediency  of  such  an  amendment  of  the  law  as  will  make  the 
fact  of  voting  an  estoppel  against  any  plea  of  exemption  from 
military  service,  or  other  civil  obligation,  on  the  ground  of 
alienage. 

In  common  with  other  Western  powers,  our  relations  with 
Japan  have  been  brought  into  serious  jeopardy,  through  the 
perverse  opposition  of  the  hereditary  aristocracj'^  of  the  empire 
to  the  enlightened  and  liberal  policy  of  the  Tycoon,  designed 
to  bring  the  country  into  the  society  of  nations.  It  is  hoped, 
although  not  with  entire  confidence,  that  these  difficulties  may 
be  peacefully  overcome.  I  ask  your  attention  to  the  claim  of 
the  Minister  residing  there  for  the  damages  he  sustained  in  the 
destruction  by  fire  of  the  residence  of  the  legation  at  Yedo. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  459 

Satisfactory  arrangements  have  been  made  with  the  em- 
peror of  Russia,  which,  it  is  believed,  will  result  in  effecting  a 
continuous  line  of  telegraph  through  that  empire  from  our 
Pacific  coast. 

I  recommend  to  your  favorable  consideration  the  subject  of 
an  internatioual  telegraph  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  ;  and  also 
of  a  telegraph  between  this  Capital  and  the  national  forts  along 
the  Atlantic  sea-board  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Such  com- 
munications, established  with  any  reasonable  outlay,  would  be 
economical  as  well  as  effective  aids  to  the  diplomatic,  military, 
and  naval  service. 

The  consular  system  of  the  United  States,  under  the  enact- 
ments of  the  last  Congress,  begins  to  be  self-sustaining;  and  there 
is  reason  to  hope  that  it  may  become  entirely  so,  with  the  in- 
crease of  trade  which  will  ensue  whenever  peace  is  restored. 
Our  Ministers  abroad  have  been  faithful  in  defending  American 
rights.  In  protecting  commercial  interests,  our  consuls  have 
necessarily  had  to  encounter  increased  labors  and  responsibili- 
ties growing  out  of  the  Avar.  These  they  have,  for  the  most 
part,  met  and  discharged  Avith  zeal  and  efficiency.  This  ac- 
knowledgment justly  includes  those  consuls  who,  residing  in 
Morocco,  Egypt,  Turkey,  Japan,  China,  and  other  Oriental 
countries,  are  charged  with  complex  functions  and  extraor- 
dinary powers. 

The  condition  of  the  several  organized  Territories  is  gener- 
ally satisfactory,  although  Indian  disturbances  in  New  Mexico 
have  not  been  entirely  suppressed.  The  mineral  resources  of 
Colorado,  Nevada,  Idaho,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona,  are  prov- 
ing far  richer  than  has  been  heretofore  understood.  I  lay  be- 
fore you  a  communication  on  this  subject  from  the  Governor 
of  New  Mexico.  I  again  submit  to  your  consideration  the 
expediency  of  establishing  a  system  for  the  encouragement  oi 
immigration.  Although  this  source  of  national  wealth  and 
strength  is  again  flowing  with  greater  freedom  than  for  several 
years  before  the  insurrection  occurred,  there  is  still  a  great  de- 
ficiency of  laborers  in  every  field  of  industry,  especially  in 
agriculture  and  in  our  mines,  as  well  of  iron  and  coal  as  of  the 
precious  metals.  While  the  demand  for  labor  is  much  increased 
here,   tens   of  thousands  of  persons,  destitute  of  remunerative 


460  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

occupation,  are  thronging  our  foreign  consulates  and  offering  to 
emigrate  to  the  United  States,  if  essential,  but  very  cheap,  as- 
sistance can  be  afforded  them.  It  is  easy  to  see  that,  under 
the  sharp  discipline  of  civil  war,  the  Nation  is  beginning  a  new 
life.  This  noble  effort  demands  the  aid,  and  ought  to  receive 
the  attention  and  sii}iport  of  the  Government, 

Injuries,  unforeseen  by  the  Government  and  unintended, 
may,  in  some  cases,  have  been  inflicted  on  the  subjects  or  citi- 
zens of  foreign  countries,  both  at  sea  and  on  land,  by  persons 
in  the  service  of  the  United  States.  As  this  Government  ex- 
pects redress  from  other  powers  when  similar  injuries  are  in- 
flicted by  persons  in  their  service  upon  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  we  must  be  prepared  to  do  justice  to  foreigners.  If  the 
existing  judicial  tribunals  are  inadequate  to  this  purpose,  a 
special  court  may  be  authorized,  with  power  to  hear  and  de- 
cide such  claims  of  the  character  referred  to  as  may  have  arisen 
under  treaties  and  the  public  law.  Conventions  for  adjusting 
the  claims  by  joint  commission  have  been  proposed  to  some 
governments,  but  no  definite  answer  to  the  proposition  has  yet 
been  received  from  any. 

In  the  course  of  the  session  I  shall  probably  have  occasion 
to  request  you  to  provide  indemnification  to  claimants  where 
decrees  of  restitution  have  been  rendered,  and  damages  awarded 
by  admiralty  courts;  and  in  other  cases,  where  this  Govern- 
ment may  be  acknowledged  to  be  liable  in  principle,  and  where 
the  amount  of  that  liability  has  been  ascertained  by  an  informal 
arbitration. 

The  proper  officers  of  the  Treasury  have  deemed  themselves 
required  by  the  law  of  the  United  States  upon  the  subject,  to 
demand  a  tax  upon  the  incomes  of  foreign  consuls  in  this 
country.  While  such  a  demand  may  not,  in  strictness,  be  in 
derogation  of  public  law,  or  perhaps  of  any  existing  treaty 
between  the  United  States  and  a  foreign  country,  the  expe- 
diency of  so  far  modifying  the  act  as  to  exempt  from  tax  the 
income  of  such  consuls  as  are  not  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
derived  from  the  emoluments  of  their  office,  or  from  property 
not  situated  in  the  United  States,  is  submitted  to  your  serious 
consideration. 

I   make   this   suggestion    upon  the  ground   that  a   comity, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  461 

which  ought  to  be  reciprocated,  exempts  our  consuls,  in 
all  other  countries,  from  taxation  to  the  extent  thus  indicated. 
The  United  States,  I  think,  ought  not  to  be  exceptionally  illib- 
eral to  international  trade  and  commerce. 

The  operations  of  ihe  Treasury  during  the  last  year  have 
been  successfully  conducted.  The  enactment  by  Congress  of  a 
national  banking  law  has  proved  a  valuable  support  of  tlie 
public  credit;  and  the  general  legislation  in  relation  to  loans 
has  fully  answered  the  expectations  of  its  favorers.  Some 
amendments  may  be  required  to  perfect  existing  laws,  but  no 
change  in  their  principles  or  general  scope  is  believed  to  be 
needed. 

Since  these  measures  have  been  in  operation,  all  demands 
on  the  Treasury,  including  the  pay  of  the  Army  and  Navy, 
have  been  promptly  met  and  fully  satisfied.  No  considerable 
body  of  troops,  it  is  believed,  were  ever  more  amply  provided, 
and  more  liberally  and  punctually  paid ;  and  it  may  be  added 
that  by  no  people  were  the  burdens  incident  to  a  great  war 
ever  more  cheerfully  borne. 

The  receipts  during  the  year  from  all  sources,  including 
loans  and  balance  in  the  Treasury  at  its  commencement,  were 
?^901, 125,674.86,  and  the  aggregate  disbursements  $895,796,- 
630.65,  leaving  a  balance  on  the  1st  of  July,  1863,  of  $5,329,- 
044.21.  Of  the  receipts  there  were  derived  frotn  customs, 
$69,059,642.40;  from  internal  revenue,  $37,640,787.95;  from 
direct  tax,  $1,485,103,61  ;  from  lands,  $167,617.17;  from  mis- 
cellaneous sources,  $3,046,615.35;  and  from  loans,  $776,682,- 
361.57;  making  the  aggregate,  $901,125,674.86.  Of  the  dis- 
bursements there  were  for  the  civil  service,  $23,253,922.08; 
for  pensions  and  Indians,  $4,216,520  79;  for  interest  on  public 
debt,  $24,729,846.51;  for  the  War  Department,  $599,298,- 
600.83;  for  the  Navy  Department,  $63,211,105.27;  for  pay- 
ment of  funded  and  temporary  debt,  $181,086,635.07  ;  making 
the  aggregate,  $895,796,630.65,  and  leaving  the  balance  of 
$5,329,044.21.  But  the  payment  of  funded  and  temporary 
debt,  having  been  made  from  moneys  borrowed  during  the  year, 
must  be  regarded  as  merely  nominal  payments,  and  the  moneys 
borrowed  to  make  them  as  merely  nominal  receipts;  and  their 
amount,  $181,086,635.07,   should   therefore  be  deducted  both 


462  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

from  receipts  and  disbursements.  This  being  done,  there  remains 
as  actual  receipts,  $720,039,039.79,  and  the  actual  disbursements 
$714,709,995.58,  leaving  the  balance  as  already  stated. 

The  actual  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  first  quarter, 
and  the  estimated  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  remaining 
three  quarters  of  the  current  fiscal  year,  1864,  will  be  shown  in 
detail  by  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  which  I 
invite  your  attention.  It  is  suflScient  to  say  here  that  it  is  not 
believed  that  actual  results  will  exhibit  a  state  of  the  finances  less 
favorable  to  the  country  than  the  estimates  of  that  oflftcer  here- 
tofore submitted  ;  while  it  is  confidently  expected  that  at  the 
close  of  the  year  both  disbursements  and  debt  will  be  found 
very  considerably  less  than  has  been  anticipated. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  is  a  document  of  great 
interest.     It  consists  of — 

1.  The  military  operations  of  the  year,  detailed  in  the  report 
of  the  General-in-Chief. 

2.  The  organization  of  colored  persons  into  the  war  service. 

3.  The  exchange  of  prisoners,  fully  set  forth  in  the  letter  of 
General  Hitchcock. 

4.  The  operations  under  the  act  for  enrolling  and  calling  out 
the  national  forces,  detailed  in  the  report  of  the  Provost-Marshal- 
General. 

5.  The  organization  of  the  invalid  corps;  and, 

6.  The  operation  of  the  several  departments  of  the  Quarter- 
master-General, Commissary-General,  Paymaster-General,  Chief 
of  Engineers,  Chief  of  Ordnance,  and  Surgeon-General. 

It  has  appeared  impossible  to  make  a  valuable  summary  of 
this  report  except  such  as  would  be  too  extended  fur  this  place, 
and  hence  I  content  myself  by  asking  your  careful  attention  to 
the  report  itself. 

The  duties  devolving  on  the  naval  branch  of  the  service 
during  the  year,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  this  unhappy 
contest,  have  been  discharged  with  fidelity  and  eminent  success. 
The  extensive  blockade  has  been  constantly  increasing  in  eflS- 
ciency,  as  the  navy  has  expanded ;  yet  on  so  long  a  line  it  has 
so  far  been  impossible  to  entirely  suppress  illicit  trade.  From 
returns  received  at  the  Navy  Department,  it  appears  that  more 
than  one  thousand  vessels  have  been  captured  since  the  block- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  463 

ade  was  instituted,  and  that  the  value  of  prizes  already  sent  in 
for  adjudication  amounts  to  over  thirteen  millions  of  dollars. 

The  naval  force  of  the  United  States  consists  at  this  time 
of -five  hundred  and  eighty-eight  vessels,  completed  and  in  the 
course  of  completion,  and  of  these  seventy -five  are  iron-clad  or 
armored  steamers.  The  events  of  the  war  give  an  increased  in- 
terest and  importance  to  the  Navy,  which  will  probably  extend 
beyond  the  war  itself. 

The  armored  vessels  in  our  Navy,  completed  and  in  service, 
or  which  are  under  contract  and  approaching  completion,  are 
believed  to  exceed  in  number  those  of  any  other  power.  But 
while  these  may  be  relied  upon  for  harbor  defense  and  coast- 
service,  others  of  greater  strength  and  capacity  will  be  necessary 
for  cruising  purposes,  and  to  maintain  our  rightful  position  on 
the  ocean. 

The  change  that  has  taken  place  in  naval  vessels  and  naval 
warfare  since  the  introduction  of  steam  as  a  motive  power  for 
ships  of  war  demands  either  a  corresponding  change  in  some  of 
our  existing  navy-yards,  or  the  establishment  of  new  ones,  for 
the  construction  and  necessary  repair  of  modern  naval  vessels. 
No  inconsiderable  embarrassment,  delay,  and  public  injury  have 
been  experienced  from  the  want  of  such  Governmental  estab- 
lishments. The  necessity  of  such  a  navy-yard,  so  furnished,  at 
some  suitable  place  upon  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  has,  on  repeated 
occasions,  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  Congress  by  the 
Navy  Department,  and  is  again  presented  in  the  report  of  the 
Secretary,  which  accompanies  this  communication.  I  think  it 
my  duty  to  invite  your  special  attention  to  this  subject,  and 
also  to  that  of  establishing  a  yard  and  depot  for  naval  purposes 
upon  one  of  the  Western  rivers.  A  naval  force  has  been  created 
on  those  interior  waters,  and  under  many  disadvantages,  within 
little  more  than  two  years,  exceeding  in  numbers  the  whole 
naval  force  of  the  country  at  the  commencement  of  the  present 
Administration.  Satisfactory  and  important  as  have  been  the 
performances  of  the  heroic  men  of  the  Navy  at  this  interesting 
period,  they  are  scarcely  more  wonderful  than  the  success  of  our 
mechanics  and  artisans  in  the  production  of  war-vessels  which 
has  created  a  new  form  of  naval  power. 

Our  country  has  advantages  superior  to  any  other  nation  in 


464  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

its  resources  of  iron  and  timber,  witb  inexhaustible  quantities 
of  fuel  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  both,  all  available  and  in 
close  proximity  to  navigable  waters.  Without  the  advantage 
of  public  works  the  resources  of  the  Nation  have  been  developed 
and  its  power  displayed  in  the  construction  of  a  navy  of  such 
magnitude  which  has,  at  the  very  period  of  its  creation,  rendered 
signal  service  to  the  Union. 

•  The  increase  of  the  number  of  seamen  in  the  public  service, ' 
from  seven  thousand  five  hundred  men,  in  the  spring  of  1861, 
to  about  thirty-four  thousand  at  the  present  time,  has  been 
accomplislied  without  si^ecial  legislation,  or  extraordinary  boun- 
ties to  promote  that  increase.  It  has  been  found,  however,  that 
the  operation  of  the  draft,  with  the  high  bounties  paid  for  army 
recruits,  is  beginning  to  affect  injuriously  the  naval  service,  and 
will,  if  not  corrected,  be  likely  to  impair  its  efficiency,  by  de- 
taching seamen  from  their  proper  vocation  and  inducing  them 
to  enter  the  army.  I  therefore  respectfully  suggest  that  Con- 
gress nn'ght  aid  both  the  army  and  naval  service  by  a  definite 
provision  on  this  subject,  which  would  at  the  same  time  be 
equitable  to  the  communities  more  especially  interested. 

I  commend  to  your  consideration  the  suggestions  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  regard  to  the  policy  of  fostering  and 
training  seamen,  and  also  the  education  of  officers  and  engineers 
for  the  naval  service.  The  Naval  Academy  is  rendering  signal 
service  in  preparing  midshipmen  for  the  highly  responsible 
duties  which  in  after  life  they  will  be  required  to  perform.  In 
order  that  the  country  should  not  be  deprived  of  the  proper 
quota  of  educated  officers,  for  which  legal  provision  has  been 
made  at  the  Naval  School,  the  vacancies  caused  by  the  neglect 
or  omission  to  make  nominations  from  the  States  in  insurrection 
have  been  filled  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  The  school  is 
now  more  full  and  complete  than  at  any  former  period,  and, 
in  every  respect,  entitled  to  the  favorable  consideration  of 
Congress. 

During  the  past  fiscal  year  the  financial  condition  of  the 
Post-office  Department  has  been  one  of  increasing  prosperity, 
and  I  am  gratified  in  being  able  to  state  that  the  actual  postal 
revenue  has  nearly  equaled  the  entire  expenditures;  the  latter 
amounting  to  $11,314,206.84,  and  the  former  to  $11,163,789.59, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  465 

leaving  a  deficiency  of  but  $160,417.25.  In  1S60,  the  year 
immediately  preceding  the  Rebellion,  the  deficiency  amounted 
to  $5,656,705.49,  the  postal  receipts  of  that  year  being  $2,645,- 
722.19  less  than  those  of  1863.  The  decrease  since  1860  in 
the  annual  amount  of  transportation  has  been  only  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent,  but  the  annual  expenditure  on  account  of  the 
same  has  been  reduced  thirty-five  per  cent.  It  is  manifest, 
therefore,  that  the  Post-oflfice  Department  may  become  self- 
sustaining  in  a  few  years,  even  with  the  restoration  of  the 
whole  service. 

The  international  conference  of  postal  delegates  from  the 
principal  countries  of  Europe  and  America,  which  was  called 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Postmaster-General,  met  at  Paris  on 
the  11th  of  May  last,  and  concluded  its  deliberations  on  the 
8th  of  June.  The  principles  established  by  the  conference  as 
best  adapted  to  facilitate  postal  intercourse  between  nations, 
and  as  the  basis  of  future  postal  conventions,  inaugurate  a  gen- 
eral system  of  uniform  international  charges,  at  reduced  rates 
of  postage,  and  can  not  fail  to  produce  beneficial  results. 

I  refer  you  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
which  is  herewith  laid  before  you,  for  useful  and  varied  infor- 
mation in  relation  to  the  public  lands,  Indian  affairs,  patents, 
pensions,  and  other  matters  of  public  concern  pertaining  to  this 
Department. 

The  quantity  of  land  disposed  of  during  the  last  and  the 
first  quarter  of  the  present  fiscal  years  was  three  million  eight 
hundred  and  forty-one  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-nine 
acres,  of  which  one  hundred  and  sixty-one  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred and  eleven  acres  were  sold  for  cash,  one  million  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  fourteen  acres 
were  taken  up  under  the  Homestead  Law,  and  the  residue  dis- 
posed of  under  laws  granting  lands  for  military  bounties,  for 
railroad  and  other  purposes.  It  also  appears  that  the  sale  of 
the  public  lands  is  largely  on  the  increase. 

It  has  long  been  a  cherished  opinion  of  some  of  our  wisest 
statesmen  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  had  a  higher 
and  more  enduring  interest  in  the  early  settlement  and  sub- 
stantial cultivation  of  the  public  lands  than  in  the  amount  of 
direct  revenue  to  be  derived  from  the  sale  of  them.     This  opinion 

30— Q 


466  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

has  had  a  controlling  influence  in  shaping  legislation  upon  the 
subject  of  our  national  domain.  I  may  cite,  as  evidence  of  this, 
the  liberal  measures  adopted  in  reference  to  actual  settlers ;  the 
grant  to  the  States  of  the  overflowed  lands  within  their  limits 
in  order  to  their  being  reclaimed  and  rendered  fit  for  cultiva- 
tion ;  the  grants  to  railway  companies  of  alternate  sections  of 
land  upon  the  contemplated  lines  of  their  roads  which,  when 
completed,  will  so  largely  multiply  the  facilities  for  reaching 
our  distant  possessions.  This  policy  has  received  its  most  signal 
and  beneficent  illustration  in  the  recent  enactment  granting 
homesteads  to  actual  settlers.  Since  the  first  day  of  January 
last  the  beforementioned  quantity  of  one  million  four  hundred 
and  fifty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  fourteen  acres  of  land 
have  been  taken  up  under  its  provisions.  This  fact  and  the 
amount  of  sales,  furnish  gratifying  evidence  of  increasing  set- 
tlement upon  the  public  lands,  notwithstanding  the  great 
struggle  in  which  the  energies  of  the  Nation  have  been  engaged, 
and  which  has  required  so  large  a  withdrawal  of  our  citizens 
from  their  accustomed  pursuits.  I  cordially  concur  in  the 
recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  suggesting  a 
modification  of  the  act  in  favor  of  those  engaged  in  the  military 
and  naval  service  of  the  United  States.  I  doubt  not  that  Con- 
gress will  cheerfully  adopt  such  measures  as  will,  without 
essentially  changing  the  general  features  of  the  system,  secure, 
to  the  greatest  practicable  extent,  its  benefits  to  those  who 
have  left  their  homes  in  the  defense  of  the  country  in  this 
arduous  crisis. 

I  invite  your  attention  to  the  views  of  the  Secretary  as  to 
the  propriety  of  raising,  by  appropriate  legislation,  a  revenue 
from  the  mineral  lands  of  the  United  States. 

The  measures  provided  at  your  last  session  for  the  removal 
of  certain  Indian  tribes  have  been  carried  into  effect.  Sundry 
treaties  have  been  negotiated,  which  will,  in  due  time,  be  sub- 
mitted for  the  Constitutional  action  of  the  Senate.  They  con- 
tain stipulations  for  extinguishing  the  possessory  rights  of  the 
Indians  to  large  and  valuable  tracts  of  land.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  effect  of  these  treaties  will  result  in  the  establishment  of 
permanent  friendly  relations  with  such  of  these  tribes  as  have 
been  brought  into   frequent  and  bloody  collision  with  our  out- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  467 

lying  settlements  and  emigrants.  Sound  policy  and  our  impera- 
tive duty  to  these  wards  of  the  Government  demand  our  anxious 
and  constant  attention  to  their  material  well-being,  to  their 
progress  in  the  arts  of  civilization,  and,  above  all,  to  that  moral 
training  which,  under  the  blessing  of  Divine  Providence,  will 
confer  upon  them  the  elevated  and  sanctifying  influences,  the 
hopes  and  consolations  of  the  Christian  faith. 

I  suggested,  in  my  last  annual  message,  the  propriety  of 
remodeling  our  Indian  system.  Subsequent  events  have  satis- 
fied me  of  its  necessity.  The  details  set  forth  in  the  report  of 
the  Secretary  evince  the  urgent  need  for  immediate  legislative 
action. 

I  commend  the  benevolent  institutions  established  or  patron- 
ized by  the  Government  in  this  District  to  your  generous  and 
fostering  care. 

The  attention  of  Congress,  during  the  last  session,  was  en- 
gaged, to  some  extent,  with  a  proposition  for  enlarging  the 
Avater  communication  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the 
northeastern  sea-board,  which  proposition,  however,  failed  for 
the  time.  Since  then,  upon  a  call  of  the  greatest  respectability, 
a  convention  has  been  held  at  Chicago  upon  the  same  subject, 
a  summary  of  whose  views  is  contained  in  a  memorial  addressed 
to  the  President  and  Congress,  and  which  I  now  have  the  honor 
to  lay  before  you.  That  this  interest  is  one  which,  erelong, 
will  force  its  own  way,  I  do  not  entertain  a  doubt,  while  it  is 
submitted  entirely  to  your  wisdom  as  to  what  can  be  done  now. 
Augmented  interest  is  given  to  this  subject  by  the  actual  com- 
mencement of  the  work  on  the  Pacific  Railroad,  under  auspices 
so  favorable  to  rapid  progress  and  completion.  The  enlarged 
navigation  becomes  a  palpable  need  to  the  great  road. 

I  transmit  the  second  annual  report  of  the  Commissioner 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  asking  your  attention  to  the 
developments  in  that  vital  interest  of  the  Nation. 

When  Congress  assembled  a  year  ago  the  war  had  already 
lasted  nearly  twenty  months,  and  there  had  been  many  conflicts 
on  both  land  and  sea  with  varying  results.  The  Rebellion  had 
been  pressed  back  into  reduced  limits;  yet  the  tone  of  public 
feeling  and  opinion,  at  home  and  abroad,  was  not  satisfactory. 
With  other  signs,  the  popular  elections,  then  just  past,  indicated 


468  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

uneasiness  among  ourselves,  while  amid  much  that  was  cold  and 
menacing,  the  kindest  words  coming  from  Europe  were  uttered 
in  accents  of  pity,  that  we  were  too  blind  to  surrender  a  hope- 
less cause.  Our  commerce  was  suffering  greatly  by  a  few  armed 
vessels  built  upon  and  furnished  from  foreign  shores,  and  we 
were  threatened  with  such  additions  from  the  same  quarter  as 
would  sweep  our  trade  from  the  sea  and  raise  our  blockade. 
We  had  failed  to  elicit  from  European  governments  anything 
hopeful  upon  this  subject.  The  preliminary  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  issued  in  September,  was  running  its  assigned 
period  to  the  beginning  of  the  new  year.  A  month  later  the 
final  proclamation  came,  including  the  announcement  that 
colored  men  of  suitable  condition  would  be  received  into  the 
war-service.  The  policy  of  emancipation,  and  of  employing 
black  soldiers,  gave  to  the  future  a  new  aspect,  about  which 
hope,  and  fear,  and  doubt  contended  in  uncertain  conflict. 
According  to  our  political  system,  as  a  matter  of  civil  admin- 
istration, the  General  Government  had  no  lawful  power  to  effect 
emancipation  in  any  State,  and  for  a  long  time  it  had  been 
hoped  that  the  Rebellion  could  be  suppressed  without  resorting 
to  it  as  a  military  measure.  It  was  all  the  while  deemed  pos- 
sible that  the  necessity  for  it  might  come,  and  that,  if  it  should, 
the  crisis  of  the  contest  would  then  be  presented.  It  came, 
and,  as  was  anticipated,  it  was  followed  by  dark  and  doubtful 
days.  Eleven  months  having  now  passed,  we  are  permitted  to 
take  another  view.  The  rebel  borders  are  pressed  still  further 
back,  and,  by  the  complete  opening  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
country  dominated  by  the  Rebellion  is  divided  into  distinct 
parts,  with  no  practical  communication  between  them.  Ten- 
nessee and  Arkansas  have  been  substantially  cleared  of  insurgent 
control^  and  influential  citizens  in  each,  owners  of  slaves  and 
advocates  of  slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  Rebellion,  now  de- 
clare openly  for  emancipation  in  their  respective  States.  Of 
those  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
Maryland  and  Missouri,  neither  of  which  three  years  ago  would 
tolerate  any  restraint  upon  the  extension  of  slavery  into  new 
Territories,  only  dispute  now  as  to  the  best  mode  of  removing  it 
within  their  own  limits. 

Of  those  who  were  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the  Rebellion, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  469 

full  one  hundred  thousand  are  now  in  the  United  States  mili- 
tary service,  about  one-half  of  which  number  actually  bear 
arms  in  the  i-anks ;  thus  giving  the  double  advantage  of  takiug 
so  much  labor  from  the  insurgent  cause,  and  supplying  the 
places  which  otherwise  must  be  filled  with  so  many  white  men. 
So  far  as  tested,  it  is  difficult  to  say  they  are  not  as  good  sol- 
diers as  any.  No  servile  insurrection,  or  tendency  to  violence 
or  cruelty,  has  marked  the  measures  of  emancipation  and  arm- 
ing the  blacks.  These  measures  have  been  much  discussed  in 
foreign  countries,  and  contemporary  with  such  discussion  the 
tone  of  public  sentiment  there  is  much  improved.  At  home 
the  same  measures  have  been  fully  discussed,  supported,  criti- 
cised, and  denounced,  and  the  annual  elections  following  are 
highly  encouraging  to  those  whose  official  duty  it  is  to  bear  the 
country  through  this  great  trial.  Thus  we  have  the  new  reck- 
oning. The  crisis  which  threatened  to  divide  the  friends  of  the 
Union  is  past. 

Looking  now  to  the  present  and  future,  and  with  reference 
to  a  resumption  of  the  national  authority  within  the  States  wherein 
that  authority  has  been  suspended,  1  have  thought  fit  to  issue  a 
proclamation,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted.  On 
examination  of  this  proclamation  it  will  appear,  as  is  believed, 
that  nothing  will  be  attempted  beyond  what  is  amply  justified 
by  the  Constitution.  True,  the  form  of  an  oath  is  given,  but 
no  man  is  coerced  to  take  it.  The  man  is  only  promised  a 
pardon  in  case  he  voluntarily  takes  the  oath.  The  Constitution 
authorizes  the  Executive  to  grant  or  withhold  the  pardon  at 
his  own  absolute  discretion  ;  and  this  includes  the  power  to 
grant  on  terms,  as  is  fully  established  by  judicial  and  other 
authorities. 

It  is  also  proffered  that  if,  in  any  of  the  States  named,  a 
State  government  shall  be,  in  the  mode  prescribed,  set  up,  such 
government  shall  be  recognized  and  guaranteed  by  the  United 
States,  and  that  under  it  the  State  shall,  on  Constitutional  con- 
ditions, be  protected  against  invasion  and  domestic  violence. 
The  Colistitutional  obligation  of  the  United  States  to  guarantee 
to  every  State  in  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government, 
and  to  protect  the  State,  in  the  cases  stated,  is  explicit  and  full. 
But  why  tender  the   benefits  of  this  provision  only  to  a  State 


470  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

government  set  up  in  this  particular  uay  ?  This  section  of  the 
Coustitutiou  contemplates  a  case  wherein  the  element  within  a 
State,  favorable  to  republican  government,  in  the  Union,  may 
be  too  feeble  for  an  opposite  and  hostile  element  external  to  or 
even  within  the  State ;  and  such  are  precisely  the  cases  with 
which  we  are  now  dealing. 

An  attempt  to  guarantee  and  protect  a  revived  State  gov- 
ernment, constructed  in  whole,  or  in  preponderating  part,  from 
the  very  element  against  whose  hostility  and  violence  it  is  to 
be  protected,  is  simply  absurd.  There  must  be  a  test  by  which 
to  separate  the  opposing  elements  so  as  to  build  only  from  the 
sound  ;  and  that  test  is  a  sufficiently  liberal  one  which  accepts 
as  sound  whoever  will  make  a  sworn  recantation  of  his  former 
unsoundness. 

But  if  it  be  proper  to  require,  as  a  test  of  admission  to  the 
political  body,  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitiition  of  the 
United  States,  and  to  the  Union  under  it,  Avhy  also  to  the  laws 
and  proclamations  in  regard  to  slavery?  Those  laws  and  proc- 
lamations were  enacted  and  put  forth  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
in  the  suppression  of  the  Rebellion.  To  give  them  their  fullest 
effect,  there  had  to  be  a  pledge  for  their  maintenance.  In  my 
judgment  they  have  aided,  and  will  further  aid,  the  cause  for 
which  they  were  intended.  To  now  abandon  them  would  be 
not  only  to  relinquish  a  lever  of  power,  but  would  also  be  a 
cruel  and  astounding  breach  of  faith.  I  may  add  at  this  point, 
that  while  I  remain  in  my  present  position  I  shall  not  attempt 
to  retract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation ;  nor  shall 
I  return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that 
Proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress.  For  these 
and  other  reasons  it  is  thought  best  that  support  of  these  meas- 
ures shall  be  included  in  the  oath ;  and  it  is  believed  the  Ex- 
ecutive may  lawfully  claim  it  in  return  for  pardon  and  restora- 
tion of  forfeited  rights,  which  he  has  clear  Constitutional  power 
to  withhold  altogether,  or  grant  upon  the  terms  which  he  shall 
deem  wisest  for  the  public  interest.  It  should  be  observed, 
also,  that  this  part  of  the  oath  is  subject  to  the  modifying  and 
abrogating  power  of  legislation  and  supreme  judicial  decision. 

The  proposed  acquiescence  of  the  national  Executive  in  any 
reasonable  temporary  State  arrangement  for  the  freed  people  is 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  471 

made  with  the  view  of  possibly  modifying  the  confusion  and 
destitution  which  must,  at  best,  attend  all  classes  by  a  total 
revolution  of  labor  throughout  whole  States.  It  is  hoped  that 
the  already  deeply  afflicted  people  in  those  States  may  be  some- 
what more  ready  to  give  up  the  cause  of  their  affliction,  if,  to 
this  extent,  this  vital  matter  be  left  to  themselves;  while  no 
power  of  the  national  Executive  to  prevent  an  abuse  is  abridged 
by  the  proposition. 

The  suggestion  in  the  Proclamation  as  to  maintaining  the  po- 
litical frame-work  of  the  States  on  what  is  called  reconstruction, 
is  made  in  the  hope  that  it  may  do  good  without  danger  of 
harm.     It  will  save  labor,  and  avoid  great  confusion. 

But  why  any  proclamation  now  upon  the  subject?  This 
question  is  beset  with  the  conflicting  views  that  the  step  might 
be  delayed  too  long  or  be  taken  too  soon.  In  some  States  the 
elements  for  resumption  seem  ready  for  action,  but  remain  in- 
active, apparently  for  want  of  a  rallying  point — a  plan  of 
action.  Why  shall  A  adopt  the  plan  of  B,  rather  than  B  that 
of  A  ?  And  if  A  and  B  should  agree,  how  can  they  know  but 
that  the  General  Government  here  will  reject  their  plan  ?  By 
the  Proclamation  a  plan  is  presented  which  may  be  accepted 
by  them  as  a  rallying  point,  and  which  they  are  assured  in  ad- 
vance will  not  be  rejected  here.  This  may  bring  them  to  act 
sooner  than  they  otherwise  woiiid. 

The  objection  to  a  premature  presentation  of  a  plan  by  the 
national  Executive  consists  in  the  danger  of  committals  on 
points  which  could  be  more  safely  left  to  further  developments. 
Care  has  been  taken  to  so  shape  the  document  as  to  avoid  em- 
barrassments from  this  source.  Saying  that,  on  certain  terras, 
certain  classes  will  be  pardoned,  Avith  riglits  restored,  it  is  not 
said  that  other  classes,  or  other  terms,  will  never  be  included. 
Saying  that  reconstruction  will  be  accepted  if  presented  in  a 
specified  way,  it  is  not  said  it  will  never  be  accepted  in  any 
other  way. 

The  movements,  by  State  action,  for  emancipation  in  sev- 
eral of  the  States  not  included  in  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, are  matters  of  profound  gratulation.  And  while  I  do  not 
repeat  in  detail  what  I  have  heretofore  so  earnestly  urged  upon 
this  subject,  my  general  views  and  feelings  remain  unchanged; 


472  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  I  trust  that  Congress  will  omit  no  fair  opportunity  of  aid- 
ing these  important  steps  to  a  great  consummation. 

In  the  midst  of  other  cares,  however  important,  we  must 
not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  war  power  is  still  our  main 
reliance.  To  that  power  alone  we  can  look,  yet  for  a  time,  to 
give  confidence  to  the  people  in  the  contested  regions,  that  the 
insurgent  power  will  not  again  overrun  them.  Until  that  con- 
fidence shall  be  established,  little  can  be  done  anywhere  for  what 
is  called  reconstruction.  Hence  our  chiefest  care  must  still  be 
directed  to  the  army  and  navy,  who  have  thus  far  borne  their 
harder  part  so  nobly  and  well.  And  it  may  be  esteemed  fortu- 
nate that  in  giving  the  greatest  efficiency  to  these  indispensable 
arms,  we  do  also  honorably  recognize  the  gallant  men,  from 
commander  to  sentinel,  who  compose  them,  and  to  whom,  more 
than  to  others,  the  world  must  stand  indebted  for  the  home  of 
freedom  disenthralled,  regenerated,  enlarged,  and  perpetuated. 

On  the  day  this  message  was  sent  to  Congress 
the  President  issued  an  Amnesty  Proclamation,  which 
he  found  necessary  to  explain  by  another  four 
months  later.  The  following  are  these  proclama- 
tions, which  served  to  show  the  continued  and  deter- 
mined good  disposition  of  the  Administration  toward 
the  insurgents,  however  worthless  they  were  other- 
wise : — 

PROCLAMATION  OF  AMNESTY. 

Whereas,  In  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
it  is  provided  that  the  President  "shall  have  power  to  grant 
reprieves  and  pardons  for  offenses  against  the  United  States, 
except  in  cases  of  impeachment ;"  and 

Whereas,  A  rebellion  now  exists  whereby  the  loyal  State 
governments  of  several  States  have  for  a  long  time  been  sub- 
verted, and  many  persons  have  committed  and  are  now  guilty 
of  treason  against  the  United  States;  and 

Whereas,  With  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  treason, 
laws  have  been  enacted  by  Congress  declaring  forfeitures  and 
confiscation  of  property  and  liberation  of  slaves,  all  upon  terms 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.      •  473 

and  conditions  therein  stated,  and  also  declaring  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  thereby  authorized  at  any  time  thereafter,  by  procla- 
mation, to  extend  to  persons  who  may  have  participated  in  the 
existing  rebellion,  in  any  State  or  part  thereof,  pardon  and 
amnesty,  with  such  exceptions  and  at  such  times  and  on  such 
conditions  as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  the  public  welfare  ;  and 

Whereas,  The  Congressional  declaration  for  limited  and 
conditional  pardon  accords  with  well  established  judicial  exposi- 
tion of  the  pardoning  power  ;  and 

AVhereas,  With  reference  to  said  rebellion,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  has  issued  'several  proclamations,  with  pro- 
visions in  regard  to  the  liberation  of  slaves;  and 

Whereas,  It  is  now  desired  by  some  persons  heretofore  en- 
gaged in  said  rebellion  to  i-esume  their  allegiance  to  the  United 
States,  and  to  reinaugurate  loyal  State  governments  within  and 
for  their  respective  States  : 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons 
who  have  directly,  or  by  implication,  participated  in  the  existing 
rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter  excepted,  that  a  full  pardon  is 
hereby  granted  to  them  and  each  of  tliem,  with  restoration  of  all 
rights  of  property,  except  as  to  slaves,  and  in  property  cases 
where  right  of  third  parties  shall  have  intervened,  and  upon  the 
condition  that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an 
oath,  and  thenceforward  keep  and  maintain  said  oath  inviolate; 
and  which  oath  shall  be  registered  for  permanent  preservation, 
and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  effect  following,  to  wit : 

"  I, ,  do  solemnly  swear,  in  presence  of  Al- 
mighty God,  that  I  will  henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Union 
of  the  States  thereunder;  aud  that  I  will,  in  like  manner,  abide 
by  and  faithfully  support  all  Acts  of  Congress  passed  during 
the  existing  rebellion  with  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so 
far  as  not  repealed,  modified,  or  held  void  by  Congress,  or  by 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  and  that  I  will,  in  like  manner, 
abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  the  Presi- 
dent made  during  the  existing  rebellion  having  reference  to 
slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not  modified  or  declared  void  by 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.     So  help  me  God." 


474  •     LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  persons  excepted  from  the  benefits  of  the  foregoing  pro- 
visions are  all  who  are,  or  shall  have  been,  civil  or  diplomatic 
officers  or  agents  of  the  so-called  Confederate  Government ;  all 
who  have  left  judicial  stations  under  the  United  States  to  aid 
the  rebellion ;  all  who  are,  or  shall  have  been,  military  or 
naval  officers  of  said  so-called  Confederate  Government  above 
the  ranii  of  colonel  in  the  army,  or  of  lieutenant  in  the  navy ; 
all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States  Congress  to  aid  the  re- 
bellion ;  all  who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army  or  navy  of 
the  United  States,  and  afterwards  aided  the  rebellion  ;  and  all 
who  have  engaged  in  any  way  in  treating  colored  persons,  or 
white  persons  in  charge  of  such,  otherwise  than  lawfully  as 
prisoners  of  war,  and  which  persons  may  have  been  found  in 
the  United  States  service  as  soldiers,  seamen,  or  in  any  other 
capacity. 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  that 
whenever  in  any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Virginia,  Florida, 
South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  a  number  of  persons,  not 
less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes  cast  in  such  State  at 
the  Presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty,  each  having  taken  the  oath  aforesaid 
and  not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified  voter  by 
the  election  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately  before  the  so- 
called  Act  of  Secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall  re-estab- 
lish a  State  government  which  shall  be  republican,  and  in 
nowise  contravening  said  oath,  such  shall  be  recognized  as  the 
true  government  of  the  State,  and  the  State  shall  receive  there- 
under the  benefits  of  the  Constitutional  provision  which  declares 
that  "  the  United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State  in  this 
Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each 
of  them  against  invasion  ;  and,  on  application  of  the  LegishUure, 
or  the  Executive  (when  the  Legislature  can  not  be  convened), 
against  domestic  violence." 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  that 
any  provision  which  may  be  adopted  by  such  State  government 
in  relation  to  the  freed  people  of  such  State,  which  shall  recog- 
nize and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their 
education,  and   which   may  yet  be  consistent,  as  a  temporary 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  •  475 

arrangement,  with  tbeir  present  condition  as  a  laboring,  land- 
less, and  homeless  class,  will  not  he  objected  to  by  tlie  national 
Executive.  And  it  is  suggested  as  not  improper,  that,  in  con- 
structing a  loyal  State  g^)vernment  in  any  State,  the  name  of 
the  State,  the  boundary,  the  subdivisions,  the  constitution,  and 
the  general  code  of  laws,  as  before  the  rebellion,  be  maintained, 
subject  only  to  the  modifications  made  necessary  by  the  condi- 
tions hereinbefore  stated,  and  such  others,  if  any,  not  contra- 
vening said  conditions,  and  which  may  be  deemed  expedient  by 
those  framing  the  new  State  government. 

To  avoid  misunderstanding,  it  may  be  proper  to  say  that 
this  proclamation,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  State  governments,  has 
no  reference  to  States  wherein  loyal  State  governments  have  all 
the  while  been  maintained.  And  for  the  same  reason,  it  may 
be  proper  to  further  say,  that  whether  members  sent  to  Con- 
gress from  any  State  shall  be  admitted  to  seats  Constitutionally, 
rests  exclusively  with  the  respective  Houses,  and  not  to  any 
extent  with  the  Executive,  And  still  further,  tha"  this  Procla- 
mation is  intended  to  present  the  people  of  the  States  wherein 
the  national  authority  has  been  suspended,  and  loyal  State  gov- 
ernments have  been  subverted,  a  mode  in  and  by  which  the  na- 
tional and  loyal  State  governments  may  be  re-established  within 
said  States,  or  in  any  of  them  ;  and  while  the  mode  presented 
is  the  best  the  Executive  can  suggest,  with  his  present  impres- 
sions, it  must  not  be  understood  that  no  other  possible  mode 
would  be  acceptable. 

Given    under   my   hand,  at   the  City  of  AVashington,    the 
eighth  day  of   December,    A.  D.   one   tliousand   eight 
hundred   and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  Independence  of 
the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-eighth. 
By  the  President:  Abraham  Lincoln. 

William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 

AMNESTY  DEFINED, 

Whereas,  It  has  become  necessary  to  define  the  cases  in 
which  insurgent  enemies  are  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  the  Proc- 
lamation of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  which  was  made 
on  the  8tli  day  of.  December,  1863,  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  shall  proceed  to  avail  themselves  of  those  benefits ;  and 


476  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Whereas,  The  objects  of  that  Proclamation  were  to  suppress 
the  insurrection,  and  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  United 
States;  and 

Whereas,  The  amnesty  therein  provided  by  the  President 
was  offered  with  reference  to  these  objects  alone : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  the  said 
proclamation  does  not  apply  to  the  cases  of  persons  who,  at  the 
time  when  they  seek  to  obtain  the  benefits  thereof  by  taking 
the  oath  thereby  prescribed,  are  in  military,  naval,  or  civil  con- 
finement or  custody,  or  under  bonds  or  ou  parole  of  the  civil, 
military,  or  naval  authorities,  or  agents  of  the  United  States  as 
prisoners  of  war,  or  persons  detained  for  offenses  of  any  kind, 
either  before  or  after  conviction  ;  and  that,  on  the  contrary,  it 
does  apply  only  to  persons  who,  being  yet  at  large  and  free 
from  any  arrest,  confinement,  or  duress,  shall  voluatarily  come 
forward  and  take  the  said  oath  with  the  purpose  of  restoring 
peace  and  establishing  the  national  authority. 

Prisoners  excluded  from  the  amnesty  offered  in  the  said 
proclamation  may  apply  to  the  President  for  clemency,  like 
all  other  offenders,  and  their  application  will  receive  due  con- 
sideration. 

I  do  further  declare  and  proclaim  that  the  oath  prescribed 
in  the  aforesaid  Proclamation  of  the  8th  of  December,  1863, 
may  be  taken  and  subscribed  to  before  any  commissioned 
ofllicer,  civil,  military,  or  naval,  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  or  any  civil  or  military  officer  of  a  State  or  Territory, 
not  in  insurrection,  who  by  the  law  thereof  may  be  qualified  for 
administering  oaths. 

All  officers  who  receive  such  oaths  are  hereby  authorized  to 
give  certificates  thereon  to  the  persons  respectively  by  whom 
they  are  made.  And  such  officers  are  hereby  required  to  trans- 
mit the  original  records  of  such  oaths  at  as  early  a  day  as  may 
be  convenient  to  the  Department  of  State,  where  they  will  be 
deposited  and  remain  in  the  archives  of  the  Government. 

The  Secretary  of  State  will  keep  a  register  thereof,  and  will, 
on  application  in  proper  cases,  issue  certificates  of  such  records 
in  the  customary  form  of  such  certificates.      , 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  477 

In   testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  the  26th  day  of  March,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-four,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  the  eighty-eighth.  Abraham  Lincoln. 

By  the  President : 
William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State. 

In  the  great  mass  of  acts  passed  during  this  ses- 
sion, the  most  noticeable  were  those  amending  and 
perfecting  the  Enrollment  and  Draft  Act  further  au- 
thorizing the  President  to  call  out  troops  Jind  en- 
large the  army  and  navy;  to  revive  the  office  of 
Lieutenant- General,  which  the  President  bestowed 
upon  General  U.  S.  Grant;  to  enable  Nevada,  Colo- 
rado, and  Nebraska  to  form  State  governments,  and 
organizing  a  temporary  government  for  Montana;  to 
establish  the  present  postal  money  order  system, 
which  went  into  effect  in  the  fall  of  1864 ;  to  repeal 
the  "Fugitive  Slave  Law;"  and  a  vast  number  of 
resolutions  of  thanks  to  generals,  naval  officers,  and 
soldiers  who  had  distinguished  themselves,  armies 
that  had  rendered  noble  service,  and  a  gold  medal 
was  voted  to  General  Grant. 

A  "reconstruction"  act  was  passed  looking  to  the 
organization  of  the  rebel  States,  but  this  was  not 
signed  by  the  President.     The  bill  provided, 

1.  For  the  appointment  of  a  provisional  governor 
of  each  rebel  State. 

2.  That  the  provisional  governor,  as  soon  as  mil- 
itary resistance  to  the  Government  should  cease, 
should  cause  the  people  to  be  enrolled,  and  if  those 


478  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

taking  the  oath  of  loyalty  should  be  in  the  majority, 
a  convention  should  be  held  for  re-establishing  the 
State  government. 

3.  The  number  of  delegates  to  the  convention 
was  fixed,  and  the  provisional  governor  authorized 
to  designate  the  voters,  rejecting  all  who  had  fought 
against  the  country  whether  taking  the  oath  or  not. 

4.  That  the  delegates  elected  should  assemble  in 
convention  with  the  provisional  governor  as  chair- 
man, and  take  the  oath  of  submission  to  the  Govern- 
ment, and  then  provide  for  incorporating  in  the  State 
constitution,  that  no  man  who  had  held  any  high 
office  under  the  rebel  authorities  should  be  eligible 
to  the  Legislature  or  office  of  governor,  that  there 
should  be  no  more  slavery  forever,  and  that  all  debts 
made  under  the  Rebellion  should  be  repudiated. 

5.  That  the  convention  should,  with  these  pro- 
visions, reconstruct  the  constitution,  and  when  sub- 
mitted to  the  people,  if  the  result  was  favorable,  the 
President  should  declare  the  government  of  the 
State  re-established. 

6.  That  if  the  convention  failed  to  conform  to 
this  plan,  the  provisional  governor  should  disperse  it, 
and  some  time  when  the  indications  were  more  favor- 
able, cause  another  election,  and  try  it  again. 

7.  That  until  such  reorganization  should  be  ef- 
fected, the  provisional  governor  should  assess  and 
collect  the  taxes. 

8.  That  there  should  be  no  more  slavery,  and  if 
any  should  be  claimed  as  slaves  they  should  be  dis- 
charged by  habeas  corpus. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  479 

9.  That  any  person  who  should  withhold  liberty 
from  one  of  these  declared  free  should  be  fined  and 
imprisoned. 

10.  That  any  person  who  should  after  the  pas- 
sage of  the  bill  hold  a  civil  office,  or  any  military 
office  above  the  rank  of  a  colonel,  under  the  Rebell- 
ion, should  not  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

The  President  had  already  committed  himself  to 
support  a  plan  not  substantially  different  in  Arkansas 
and  Louisiana,  and  had  in  his  Proclamation  of  Amnesty 
indicated  the  course  he  favored.  Still  he  approved 
most  of  this  bill,  and  that  it  might  not  fail  to  accom- 
plish any  good  for  which  it  was  designed,  he  issued 
this  proclamation  and  to  it  appended  the  entire  bill: — 

"Whereas,  At  the  iate  session,  Congress  passed  a  bill  'to 
guarantee  to  certain  States,  whose  governments  have  been 
usurped  or  overthrown,  a  republican  form  of  government,'  a 
copy  of  which  is  hereunto  annexed  ;  and 

"  Whereas,  The  said  bill  was  presented  to  the  President 
of  the  United  States  for  his  approval  less  than  one  hour  before 
the  sine  die  adjournment  of  said  session,  and  was  not  signed  by 
him  ;  and 

"Whereas,  The  said  bill  contains,  among  other  things,  a 
plan  for  restoring  the  States  in  rebellion  to  their  proper  prac- 
tical relation  in  the  Union,  which  plan  expresses  the  sense  of 
Congress  upon  that  subject,  and  which  plan  it  is  now  thought 
fit  to  lay  before  the  people  for  their  consideration : 

"Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  thtit, 
while  I  am  (as  I  was  in  December  last,  when  by  proclamation 
I  propounded  a  plan  for  restoration)  unprepared,  by  a  formal 
approval  of  this  bill,  to  be  inflexibly  committed  to  any  single 
plan  of  restoration  ;  and,  while  I  am  also  unprepared  to  declare 
that   the   Fi-ee   State    constitutions    and    governments    already 


480  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

adopted  and  installed  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  shall  be  set 
aside  and  held  for  nought,  thereby  repelling  and  discouraging 
the  loyal  citizens  who  have  set  up  the  sanje  as  to  further  effort, 
or  to  declare  a  (^Constitutional  competency  in  Congress  to  abolish 
slavery  in  States,  but  am  at  the  same  time  sincerely  hoping 
and  expecting  that  a  Constitutional  amendment  abolishing 
slavery  throughout  the  nation  may  be  adopted,  nevertheless  I 
am  fully  satisfied  with  the  system  for  restoration  contained  in 
the  bill  as  one  very  proper  plan  for  the  loyal  people  of  any 
State  choosing  to  adopt  it,  and  I  am,  and  at  all  times  shall 
be,  prepared  to  give  the  Executive  aid  and  assistance  to  any 
such  people,  so  soon  as  the  military  resistance  to  the  United 
States  shall  have  been  suppressed  in  any  such  State,  and  the 
people  thereof  shall  have  sufficiently  returned  to  their  obedience 
to  the  Constitution  and  law^s  of  the  United  States,  in  which 
cases  military  governors  will  be  appointed,  with  directions  to 
proceed  according  to  the  bill. 

"  In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and 
caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

"  Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  eighth  day  of  July, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-four,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United 
States  of  America  the  eighty-ninth. 

"By  the  President:  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"William  H.  Sewakd,  Secretary  of  State." 

This  Proclamation,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's  course  as  to 
the  Reconstruction  Bill,  passed  by  a  large  mnjority  in 
both  Houses,  were  mistakes  in  the  light  of  subse- 
quent events.  They  were  also  mistakes,  perhaps,  in 
reference  to  his  own  powers  in  the  face  of  a  Congress 
loyal  by  an  overwhelming  majority.  Yet,  under  the 
circumstances,  these  mistakes  were  not  an  adequate 
apology  for  the  appearance  of  a  paper  in  very  harsh, 
intemperate,  and  exaggerated  terms  signed  by  B.  F. 
Wade    and    Henry    Winter    Davis    condemning    and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  481 

criticising  the  President's  course  in  the  whole  mat- 
ter. These  men  were  chairmen  of  the  respective 
committees  in  the  two  Houses  having  in  hand  the 
parts  of  the  President's  Message  relating  to  recon- 
struction, and  Mr.  Davis  presented  the  bill  which 
the  President  neglected  to  sign.  The  motive  which 
seemed  to  move  their  attack  on  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
based  upon  the  part  they  had  taken  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  bill.  At  all  events,  the  harm  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  done  to  his  own  cause,  was  greatly  aug- 
mented by  their  appeal  to  the  people.  The  ''  Opposi- 
tion "  made  all  they  could  of  this  affair,  but  when 
November  came,  the  result  at  the  polls  told  plainly 
enough  in  whom  the  people  placed  confidence. 

Towards  the  close  of  December,  1861,  Mr.  Howe, 
of  Wisconsin,  introduced  in  the  Senate  a  bill  for  the 
repeal  of  the  "Fugitive  Slave  Act"  of  1850.  This 
bill  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee  and 
there  lay  until  the  spring  of  1863.  David  Wilmot 
and  Henry  Wilson  also  made  efforts  in  1862  to  bring 
about  some  legislation  for  the  destruction  of  this  ob- 
noxious Act ;  and  a  number  of  petitions  kept  the 
matter  before  Congress,  but  nothing  wns  done.  Soon 
after  the  session  opened  in  1863,  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
of  Pennsylvania,  offered  a  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  1793  and  the  Amendatory 
Act  of  1850.  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  and  George  W. 
Julian,  of  Indiana,  also  presented  bills  for  the  same 
purpose.  In  January,  1864,  Charles  Sumner  in  the 
Senate  moved  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of 
seven  to   consider  all  matters  pertaining   to   slavery 

31—0 


482  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  the  treatment  of  slaves.  Of  the  committee,  five 
were  strong  anti-slavery  men.  From  this  committee, 
late  in  February,  Mr.  Smnner  introduced  a  bill  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  with  it  an 
exhaustive  report.  Carlile,  of  West  Virginia,  and 
the  Democrat,  Buckalew,  of  Pennsylvania,  as  the 
minority  of  the  committee  of  seven,  also  made  a 
report  against  the  majority  bill.  After  a  long,  and 
to  some  extent,  foolish  wrangle,  Mr.  Sumner's  bill 
was  laid  on  the  table  and  not  taken  up.  Early  in 
June  Daniel  Morris,  of  New  York,  in  the  House 
introduced  "A  bill  to  repeal  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act 
of  1850,  and  all  acts,  and  parts  of  acts,  for  the  ren- 
dition of  fugitive  slaves."  On  the  13th  of  the  same 
month  this  bill  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  eighty-two 
to  fifty-seven.  A  week  later  through  Mr.  Sumner 
this  bill  was  brought  to  the  consideration  of  the 
Senate,  and  on  the  23d  was  passed  by  twenty-seven 
yeas  against  twelve  nays.  And  thus  passed  away 
this  troublesome  law,  which  had  been  virtually  dead 
since  the  fall  of  Sumter,  like  everything  else  belong- 
ing to  slavery ;  and  all  this  turmoil  about  it  now  did 
no  more  than  to  aid  in  the  irrevocable  establishment 
of  the  decree  which  had  gone  forth  in  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  488 


CHAPTER    XX. 

WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION  —  MR.  LINCOLN'S  BURDENS  — 
HIS  SPEECH  AT  GETTYSBURG— MEDDLESOME  HORACE 
GREELEY'S  DOUBTFUL  CONDUCT— PSEUDO  ATTEMPTS 
AT  NEGOTIATION. 

BEYOND  what  may  be  termed  his  legitimate 
official  duties  the  demands  made  upon  the  Pres- 
ident were  onerous  and  trying.  Few  who  sought 
him  were  ever  turned  away.  Without  a  vast  degree 
of  sympathy  for  sufferings  liable  to  befall  all,  and 
which  should  be  borne  without  publicity,  and  little 
or  no  respect  for  the  needless,  officious,  or  imperti- 
nent efforts  of  men  to  be  seen  and  heard,  he  felt 
it  his  duty  to  care  for  all,  however  laborious  the 
task.  It  was  his  way  of  being  President.  What 
he  considered  it  his  duty  to  do,  he  did  not  in- 
trust to  another.  It  was  expected  of  him,  and  he 
did  it. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  largely  imbued  with  the  feeling 
tha  the  could  do  better  than  others  what  he  had  to  do. 
He  had  carried  this  feeling  with  him  from  the  times 
of  his  first  physical  conquests  at  Gentry ville  and  New 
Salem.  And  when  it  canie  to  an  argument  or  a  de- 
fense he  never  forgot  his  battles  with  Judge  Douglas. 
While  deferring  so  little,  and  yet  so  much,  to  the 
opinions   and   wants   of  others,   he   re-examined  his 


484  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

motives  and  acts  at  every  apparent  adverse  decision 
of  the  people. 

When  Horace  Greeley,  who  gave  Mr.  Lincoln 
no  little  trouble,  wrote  his  impertinent  letter,  under 
date  of  August  19,  1862,  he  was  greatly  surprised 
to  receive  an  answer.  While  he  went  on  the  com- 
mon error  that  it  w\as  proper  and  to  be  expected 
that  every  man  who  wanted  to  do  so  should  attack, 
advise,  or  abuse  a  President,  he  did  not  think  Mr. 
Lincoln  would  depart  from  the  standard  of  silent 
dignity  prescribed  for  Presidents.  Thus  it  was  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  found  writing  carefullv  worded  and 
thoughtful  letters  to  the  Governor  of  New  York  about 
his  draft  riots,  and  to  Fernando  Wood  about  his  in- 
jurious fabrications,  schemes,  or  something,  concern- 
ing peace;  long,  carefully  prepared,  and  caustic  letters 
to  the  Copperheads  of  New  York  and  Ohio ;  volumi- 
nous and  meaty  letters  to  the  factionists  in  Missouri ; 
letters  to  Churches  and  officious,  consequential,  and 
gushing  preachers;  letters  to  political  quacks  and 
schemers;  letters  to  military  adventurers  and  self- 
promoters;  to  scores  of  fault-finders,  and  hundreds 
of  earnest  and  sham  eulogists  and  flatterers;  to  the 
reconstructionists  in  Louisiana  and  Arkansas;  to 
weak-kneed  Union  men  in  Kentucky;  letters  to  the 
'•'working-men"  of  Manchester  and  London,  England; 
a  long  letter  to  the  "working-men"  of  New  York, 
pleasing  and  pampering  them  by  accepting  a  foolishly 
proffered  membership  in  their  society;  and  so  on  to 
almost  endless  extent;  speeches  to  soldiers  who  must 
see  Father  Abraham;  little  speeches  at  sanitary  fairs, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  485 

in  Washington,  Baltimore,  and  Philadelphia;  and 
speeches  and  letters  in  place  and  out  of  place.  There 
was  no  rest  for  Lincoln.  The  burdens  of  the  Nation 
he  bore,  and  when  the  picture  of  the  slain  rose  before 
him,  and  the  thousands  of  appeals  for  the  maimed, 
the  sutfering,  and  the  needy  were  daily  presented  to 
him,  it  was  no  wonder  that  he  should  exclaim:  "I 
shall  never  be  glad  again." 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  all  these  letters 
written  by  Mr.  Lincoln  is  the  folloAving;,  which  suffi- 
ciently explains  itself: — 


to? 


"Executive  Mansion,  Washington,) 
"December  23,  1S63.        ( 

"I  have  just  looked  over  a  petition  signed  by  some 
three  dozen  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  and  their  accompanying 
letters,  one  by  yourself,  one  by  a  Mr.  Nathan  Ranney,  and 
one  by  a  Mr.  John  D.  Coalter,  the  whole  relating  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  MePheeters.  The  petition  prays,  in  the  name  of 
justice  and  mercy,  that  I  will  restore  Dr.  MePheeters  to 
all  his  ecclesiastical  rights. 

"  This  gives  no  intimation  as  to  what  ecclesiastical 
rights  are  withdrawn.  Your  letter  states  that  Provost 
Marshal  Dick,  about  a  year  ago,  ordered  the  arrest  of  Dr. 
MePheeters,  pastor  of  the  Vine  Street  Church,  prohibited 
him  from  officiating,  and  placed  the  management  of  affiiirs 
of  the  Church  out  of  the  control  of  the  chosen  trustees; 
and,  near  the  close,  you  state  that  a  certain  course  'would 
insure  his  release.'  Mr.  Ranney's  letter  says:  'Dr.  Samuel 
MePheeters  is  enjoying  all  the  rights  of  a  civilian,  but  can 
not  preach  the  gospel!'  Mr.  Coalter,  iu  his  letter,  asks: 
'Is  it  not  a  strange  illustration  of  the  condition  of  things, 
that  the  question  who  shall  be  allowed  to  preach  in  a 
church  in  St.  Louis  shall  be  decided  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States  ?' 


486  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"Now,  all  this  sounds  very  strangely;  and,  withal,  a 
little  as  if  you  gentlemen  making  the  application  do  not 
understand  the  case  alike — one  affirming  that  this  Doctor 
is  enjoying  all  the  rights  of  a  civilian,  and  another  point- 
ing out  to  me  what  will  secure  his  release!  On  the  2d  of 
January  last  I  wrote  to  General  Curtis  in  relation  to  Mr. 
Dick's  order  upon  Dr.  McPheeters;  and,  as  I  suppose  the 
Doctor  is  enjoying  all  the  rights  of  a  civilian,  I  only  quote 
that  part  of  my  letter  which  relates  to  the  Church.  It 
was  as  follows:  'But  I  must  add  that  the  United  States 
Government  must  not,  as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run 
the  Churches.  When  an  individual,  in  a  Church  or  out 
of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the  public  interest,  he  must 
be  checked;  but  the  Churches,  as  such,  must  take  care  of 
themselves.  It  will  not  do  for  the  United  States  to 
appoint  trustees,  supervisors,  or  other  agents  for  the 
Churches.' 

"This  letter  going  to  General  Curtis,  then  in  command, 
I  supposed,  of  course,  it  was  obeyed,  especially  as  I  heard 
no  further  complaint  from  Dr.  Mc.  or  his  friends  for  nearly 
an  entire  year.  I  have  never  interfered,  nor  thought  of 
interfering,  as  to  who  shall  or  shall  not  preach  in  any 
Church;  nor  have  I  knowingly  or  believingly  tolerated 
any  one  else  to  interfere  by  my  authority.  If  any  one  is 
so  interfering  by  color  of  my  authority,  I  would  like  to 
have  it  specially  made  known  to  me. 

"  If,  after  all,  what  is  now  sought  is  to  have  me  put 
Dr.  Mc.  back  over  the  heads  of  a  majority  of  his  own 
congregation,  that,  too,  will  be  declined.  I  will  not  have 
control  of  any  Church  or  any  side.  A.  Lincoln." 

On  the  19th  of  November,  1863,  a  great  concourse 
of  loyal  people  assembled  at  Gettysburg  to  engage 
in  the  ceremony  of  setting  aside,  as  a  sacred  spot  on 
the  bosom  of  "mother  earth,"  the  ground  containing 
the  mortal   remains  of  the   loyal   soldiers   who  had 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.   '  487 

fallen  in  the  great  battle  there.  Among  them  were 
the  President  and  his  Cabinet.  Edward  Everett  was 
the  orator  of  the  occasion,  but  his  polished  speech 
did  not  satisfy  the  demand  of  the  moment.  The 
eyes  of  the  A^ast  assembly  were  upon  the  weary 
President.  After  leaving  Washington  he  had  written 
a  little  speech,  and  this  he  now  stood  forward,  with 
bowed  form,  and  pronounced  impressively: — 

"Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  upon  this  continent  a  new  Nation,  conceived  in  lib- 
erty, and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war, 
testing  whether  that  Nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived 
and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a 
great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We  are  met  to  dedicate  a 
portion  of  it  as  the  final  resting-place  of  those  who  here 
gave  their  lives  that  that  Nation  might  live.  It  is  alto- 
gether fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

"  But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  can  not  dedicate,  we  can 
not  consecrate,  we  can  not  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave 
men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated 
it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will 
little  note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here,  but  it 
can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the 
living,  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work 
that  they  have  thus  far  so  nobly  carried  on.  It  is  rather 
for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining 
before  us;  that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased 
devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  they  here  gave  the  last 
full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that 
the  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  the  Nation 
shall,  under  God,  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that 
the  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 


488  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

This  simple  and  beautiful  speech  touched  the 
sympathetic  chord,  and  partl5^  from  its  own  merit  and 
partly  from  the  sad  end  of  the  strange  and  interest- 
ing man  who  uttered  it,  it  will  live  in  the  literary 
history  of, this  country  when  the  loft}^  periods  of  the 
Massachusetts  scholar  and  orator  shall  be  lost. 

Two  events  may  now  be  described,  which,  although 
coming  under  the  head  of  political  trickery,  form  a 
link  in  the  story  of  the  times.  Horace  Greeley,  one 
of  the  poorest  judges  of  men  and  things  in  the  world, 
and  yet  who  had  an  insatiable  itching  to  put  his  nose 
or  finger  in  everything  going  on,  a  fact  which  every- 
body knew,  early  in  July.  1864,  received  a  letter 
from  a  rebel  in  Canadn,  leading  him  to  the  belief 
that  authorized  agents  from  Jefferson  Davis  were 
awaiting  to  proceed  to  Washington  to  negotiate  for 
peace.  Mr.  Greeley  had  taken  up  the  utterly  base- 
less notion  that  this  was  the  way  to  reach  peace,  and 
that  the  war  should  be  stopped,  and  for  some  months 
he  had  been  blundering  about  in  "  The  Tribune,"  and 
otherwise,  in  vain  to  find  a  clew. 

On  the  7th  of  July  he  wrote  the  President  a  long 
letter,  inclosing  the  one  he  had  received  from  Canada. 
In  this  letter  he  not  only  begged  the  President  to 
harbor  these  unauthorized  frauds  from  Canada,,  but 
told  him  that  he  did  not  understand  the  demand  of 
the  people  for  peace;  that  something  must  be  done 
to  prevent  a  Northern  insurrection ;  and  then  laid 
down  a  plan  of  settlement,  finally  telling  the  Presi- 
dent that  if  he  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  make  an 
offer  of  terms  to  the  rebels,  he  should  listen  to  what 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  489 

they  had  to  say.  A  few  d;iys  later,  owing  to  another 
letter  received  from  Canada,  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  the 
President,  on  the  13th,  that  he  h;id  reliable  informa- 
tion that  authorized  agents  were  awaitinsr  near  Niajr- 
ara  FjiIIs  to  confer  wilh  him,  or  any  commissioners 
of  his  appointment.  Two  days  afterwards  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, in  replying  to  this  letter,  said  : — 

"I  am  disappointed  that  you  have  not  already  reached 
here  with  those  commissioners.  If  they  would  consent  to 
come  on  being  shown  my  letter  to  you  on  the  9th  instant, 
show  that  and  this  to  them;  and,  if  they  will  consent  to 
come  on  the  terms  stated  in  the  former,  bring  them.  I 
not  only  intend  a  sincere  eifort  for  peace,  but  I  intend 
that  you  shall  be  a  personal  witness  that  it  is  made." 

Mr.  Hay,  the  private  secretary  of  the  President, 
carried  this  message  to  New  York,  and  having  the 
authority  to  make  out  a  passport,  at  the  suggestion 
of  Mr.  Greeley  included  in  it  the  names  of  four  per- 
sons, Clement  C.  Clay,  Jacob  Thompson  (Secretary 
of  the  Navy  under  Buchanan),  James  P.  Holcombe, 
and  the  wild,  unreliable,  revolutionary  George  N. 
Sanders.  On  the  17th  Mr.  Greeley  arrived  at  Niag- 
ara Falls,  and  at  once  notified  these  men  that  he 
was  ready  to  furnish  them  a  safe  conduct  to  Wash- 
ington as  the  authorized  agents  of  the  rebel  authori- 
ties. This  brought  him  a  letter  from  Clay  and  Hol- 
combe, Thompson  never  at  any  time  appearing  in  the 
intrigue,  informing  him  that  there  was  a  mistake 
about  their  being  authorized  peace  negotiators  from 
Jefferson  Davis,  but  stating  that  they  were  in  his 
confidence,  and  any  satisfactory  steps    on   their  part 


490  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

toward  peace  would  be  receiA'^ed  well  at  Richmond. 
This  showed  Mr.  Greeley  that  he  had  been  going  too 
fast.  These  men  had  not  authorized  the  representa- 
tions he  had  made  to  the  President,  and  on  which 
with  terms  affixed  the  safe  conduct  had  been  granted. 
Mr.  Greeley  now  substantially  acknowledged  this  fact 
to  them,  and  sent  to  Washington  for  further  orders. 
Mr.  John  Hay  was  now  hastened  off  to  Niagara  with 
this  communication : — 

"  Executive  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C,  ") 

"  July  18,  1864.         j 

"  To   WHOM    IT   MAY   CONCERN  : — 

"  Any  propositions  which  embrace  the  restoration  of 
peace,  the  integrity  of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandon- 
ment of  slavery,  and  which  comes  by  and  with  an  au- 
thority that  can  control  the  armies  now  at  war  against  the 
United  States,  will  be  received  and  considered  by  the 
Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  will  be 
met  by  liberal  terms  on  other  substantial  and  collateral 
points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof  shall  have  safe 
conduct  both  ways.  Abraham  Lincoln." 

The  matter  had  now  gone  as  far  as  it  could  go, 
and  as  far  as  it  was  designed  to  go  from  the  first.  Mr. 
Greeley  went  home,  and  Clay  and  Holcombe  wrote 
him  a  long  letter  dated  on  the  21st.  This  letter 
may  or  may  not  have  been  dictjited  by  Northern 
Copperheads  who  were  in  communication  with  these 
men,  but  it  was  ingeniously  constructed  to  favor 
their  purposes  in  the  coming  elections,  as  well  as 
to  aid  the  rebel  cause  abroad.  The  foundation  for 
the  senibhtnce  of  strength  which  their  letter  acquired 
Mr.  Greeley  had  supplied,  and    though   he   did   this 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  491 

through  his  anxiety  for  the  accomplishment  of  some- 
thing always  impossible,  he  not  only  refused  to  undo 
the  wrong  he  had  done,  but  gave  himself,  to  some 
extent,  to  the  work  of  confirming  and  Jiggravating  it. 
This  letter  accused  the  President  of  opening  the 
door  unconditionally  for  untrammeled,  liberal  nego- 
tiations, and  then  closing  it  by  an  utter  change  of 
his  purposes  and  pretenses  in  the  communication  of 
the  18th  addressed  "To-  whom  it  may  concern." 
This,  they  said,  presented  the  case  in  an  entirely 
different  aspect  from  the  first  impressions  they  had 
of  the  President's  disposition.  It  was  a  rude  with- 
drawal, they  said,  of  a  courteous  overture  for  nego- 
tiations. And  although  the  letter  is  purposely 
couched  in  evasive  terms  as  to  any  conditions  which 
would  have  been  acceptable  to  the  rebels,  and  pur- 
posely and  absolutely  falsely  conveys  the  idea  that 
an  opportunity  honorable  to  the  Union  was  now 
rudely  thrown  away,  still  they  were  not  able  to  get 
through  it,  without  revealing  themselves  and  reveal- 
ing what  the  President  had  long  known  and  what 
Horace  Greeley  and  everybody  else  had  just  as  good 
grounds  for  knowing.     They  said  : — 

"  Whilst  an  ardent  desire  for  peace  pervades  the  people 
of  the  Confederate  States,  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  there 
are  few,  if  any,  among  them,  who  would  purchase  it  at  the 
expense  of  liberty,  honor,  and  self-respect.  If  it  can  be 
secured  only  by  submission  to  terms  of  conquest,  the  gen- 
eration is  yet  unborn  which  will  witness  its  restitution. 
If  there  be  any  military  autocrat  in  the  North,  who  is 
entitled  to  proffer  the  conditions  of  this  manifesto,  there  is 
none  in  the  South  authorized  to  entertain  them." 


492  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

These  irresponsible  men  well  knew  before  they 
set  out  on  this  affair  what  would  be  the  result  of  it, 
and  never  designed  it  for  anything  but  political  effect, 
and  everything  had  worked  to  their  hand.  They 
knew  they  could  offer  but  one  proposition,  uncondi- 
tional independence  for  the  South,  and  that  could 
never  be  listened  to  by  the  Government.  The  utter 
falsity  of  their  position  and  their  letter  was  plain 
enough.  But  the  point  -where  Mr.  Lincoln  was  af- 
fected was  in  the  charge  of  his  change  from  his 
original  hope  he  had  held  out  at  first  to  "  no  truce 
to  rebels,  except  to  bury  their  dead,  until  every 
man  shall  have  laid  down  his  arms,  submitted  to 
the  Government,  and  sued  for  mercy." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  first  letter  to  Greeley  about  this 
nffair  was  as  follows  : — 

"  Washington,  D.  C,  .July  9,  1864. 
"  Hon.  Horace  Greeley  : — 

"  Dear  Sir, — Your  letter  of  the  7th,  with  inclosures 
received.  If  you  can  find  any  person  anywhere  professing 
to  have  any  proposition  of  JefiFerson  Davis,  in  writing,  for 
peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  aban- 
donment of  slavery,  whatever  else  it  embraces,  say  to  him 
he  may  come  to  me  with  you,  and  that  if  he  really  brings 
such  proposition,  he  shall,  at  the  least,  have  safe  conduct 
with  the  paper  (and  without  publicity  if  lie  chooses)  to  the 
point  where  you  shall  have  met  him.  The  same  if  there 
be  two  or  more  persons.  Yours  truly, 

"  A.  Lincoln. 

This  was  the  only  letter  written  by  the  President 
on  the  subject,  except  that  on  the  15th,  given  sub- 
stantially already.     So  at  the  outset  he  had  told  Mr. 


ABKAHAM  LINCOLN.  493 

Greeley,  in  substance,  what  he  said  in  the  communi- 
cation "  To  whom  it  may  concern,"  and  he  had  never 
intimated  anything  else.  He  had  not  changed.  Mr. 
Greeley,  however  had  failed  to  show  the  Canada 
rebels  Mr.  Lincoln's  letters  of  the  9th  and  15th,  as 
he  hiid  been  directed  to  do,  and  had  told  them  noth- 
ing about  the  conditions  of  their  safe  conduct,  and 
when  this  letter,  which  w\as  a  wholly  false  political 
fabrication,  was  published,  he  gave  it  strength  by 
holding  out  the  untruth  that  the  President  had 
changed  from  good  to  bad  between  the  9th  and  the 
18th  of  July.  The  "  Opposition  "  or  "  Copperheads," 
as  they  were  called,  now  burst  out  in  a  furious  assault 
on  the  President,  taking  this  letter  of  the  two  rebels 
and  this  pseudo  attempt  at  negotiation  as  their  text. 
Every  evil  to  the  country  and  its  cause,  that  was 
possible,  was  made  out  of  it. 

Mr.  Lincoln  felt  deeply  the  injury  Mr.  Greeley 
had  done  to  him  and  the  country,  and  with  a  view  of 
correcting  it,  applied  to  him  for  the  publication  of 
their  full  correspondence,  omitting  such  parts  of  Mr. 
Greeley's  letters  as  he  thought  would  be  mischiev- 
ous, relating  to  his  predicted  insurrections  in  the 
North,  and  similar  foolishness.  But  Mr.  Greeley 
refused  to  have  any  part  of  his  letters,  utterly  inad- 
missible, really,  throughout,  printed,  without  the  ex- 
tremely bad  parts  as  well.  So  Mr.  Lincoln,  conclud- 
ing that  he  should  suffer  the  injustice  to  himself, 
dropped  the  matter,  hoping  the  people  would  take 
that  view  of  the  case  which  the  good  of  the  Nation 
required. 


494  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  following  letter  from  him  to  the  editor  of 
"  The  New  York  Times  "  must  end  the  matter  here : — • 

"Executive  Mansion,  AVashington,  \ 
"  August  15,  1864.       / 
"  Hon.  Henry  J.  Raymond  : — 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — I  have  proposed  to  Mr.  Greeley 
that  the  Niagara  correspondence  be  published,  suppressing 
only  the  parts  of  his  letters  over  which  the  red  pencil  is 
drawn  in  the  copy  which  I  herewith  send.  He  declines 
giving  his  consent  to  the  publication  of  his  letters,  unless 
these  parts  be  published  with  the  rest.  I  have  concluded 
that  it  is  better  for  me  to  submit,  for  the  time,  to  the  con- 
sequences of  the  false  position  in  which  I  consider  he  has 
placed  me,  than  to  subject  the  country  to  the  consequences 
of  publishing  these  discouraging  and  injurious  parts.  I 
send  you  this,  and  the  accompanying  copy,  not  for  publica- 
tion, but  merely  to  explain  to  you,  and  that  you  preserve 
them  until  their  proper  time  shall  come. 

"  Yours  truly,  Abraham  Lincoln." 

About  the  same  time  another  effort,  no  doabt  de- 
signed for  a  similar  purpose,  political  effect,  was 
made  in  a  different  direction.  Colonel  James  F 
Jaques  and  J.  R.  Gillmore  (Edmund  Kirk)  without 
authority  from  Mr.  Lincoln  got  permission  to  pass 
through  the  lines  to  go  to  Kichmond,  where  they 
had  a  long  interview  with  Jefferson  Davis,  and  in 
which  they  drew  from  him  this  statement : — 

"  I  desire  peace  as  much  as  you  do;  I  deplore  blood- 
shed as  much  as  you  do  ;  but  I  feel  that  not  one  drop  of 
the  blood  shed  in  this  war  is  on  my  hands.  I  can  look 
up  to  my  God  and  say  this.  I  tried  all  in  my  power  to 
avert  this  war.  I  saw  it  coming,  and  for  twelve  years  I 
worked    night    and  day  to   prevent  it ;  but  I    could    not. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  495 

The  North  was  mad  and  blind ;  it  would  not  let  us  govern 
ourselves;  and  so  the  war  came;  and  now  it  must  go  on 
till  the  last  man  of  this  generation  falls  in  his  tracks, 
and  his  children  seize  his  musket  and  fight  our  battle,  un- 
less you  acknowledge  our  right  to  self-government.  We 
are  not  fighting  for  slavery.  We  are  fighting  for  inde- 
pendence, and  that  or  extermination  we  will  have.  .  .  . 
"  Say  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  from  me,  that  I  shall  at  any 
time  be  pleased  to  receive  proposals  for  peace  on  the  basis 
of  our  independence.  It  will  be  useless  to  approach  me 
with  any  other." 

This  statement  drawn  from  Mr.  Davis  was  worth 
a  great  deal  to  the  national  cause,  politically  and 
otherwise,  at  home  and  abroad.  It  settled  the  mat- 
ter indisputably  that  the  war  must  go  on  until  the 
Rebellion  was  overthrown.  This  fact  was  well  known 
before.  The  rebels  had  never  lost  au  opportunity 
to  express  themselves.  They  wanted  no  compromise 
with  the  Yankees.  In  the  foce  of  all  these  things, 
could  it  be  believed  that  the  men  who  talked  of  com- 
promise, conciliation,  amicable  settlement,  and  restora- 
tion of  the  Union  were  sincere?  Would  changing 
the  Adniinistration  of  public  affairs  at  such  a  crisis 
into  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party,  as  then  organ- 
ized, restore  the  Union  ?  Was  not  all  this  "  Oppo- 
sition" madness  and  folly  a  part  of  the  war  for  the 
establishment  of  slavery  and  the  overthrow  of  the 
Union  ? 

The  following  rebel  opinions  must  serve  to  close 
this  chapter: — 

"The  time  for  compromise  has  now  passed,  and  the  South 
is  determined  to  maintain  her  position,  and  make  all  who  oppose 


496  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

her  smell  Southern  powder  and  feel  Southern  steel  if  coercion 
is  persii=ted  in.  He  had  no  doubts  as  to  the  result.  He  said 
we  will  maintain  our  rights  and  government  at  all  hazards. 
We  ask  nothing,  we  want  nothing;  we  will  have  no  complica- 
tions. If  the  other  States  join  our  confederation  they  can  freely 
come  in  on  our  terms.  Our  separation  from  the  old  Union  is 
now  complete.  No  compromise,  no  reconstruction  is  now  to 
be  entertained."  (Jefferson  Davis,  at  Montgomery,  February 
16,  1861.) 

"I  am  against  it  now  and  forever.  What  have  we  worked 
for?  Simply  a  new  constitution?  No!  we  sought  to  be  relieved 
of  the  North  because  they  were  fleeciug  us;  giving  fishing  boun- 
ties and  otherwise  squandering  the  public  treasure,  and  filling 
their  pockets  from  our  labors.  I  would  not  unite  with  them 
if  they  were  to  bind  themselves  in  amounts  more  than  they 
were  worth,  and  give  me  a  distress  warrant  to  sell  them  out. 
I  wish  the  people  of  Georgia  to  say :  This  shall  be  a  slavehold- 
ing  confederacy,  and  nothing  else."  (T.  R.  R.  Cobb,  of  Georgia, 
at  Atlanta,  in  1861,  on  reconstruction.) 

"It  can  not  be  that  the  people  of  the  Confederate  States 
can  again  entertain  a  feeling  of  affection  and  respect  for  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  We  have,  therefore,  sepa- 
rated from  them ;  and  now  let  it  be  understood  that  the  separa- 
tion is  and  ought  to  be  final  and  irrevocable ;  that  Virginia 
'  will  under  no  circumstances  entertain  any  proposition  from 
any  quarter  which  may  have  for  its  object  a  restoration  or  re- 
construction of  the  late  Union,  on  any  terms  or  conditions 
whatever.'"'  (Governor  Letcher,  of  Virginia,  in  December, 
1862.) 

"  It  is  a  favorite  idea  with  a  great  many,  that  possibly  the 
old  order  of  things  could  be  restored ;  that  our  rights  under 
that  Constitution  could  be  guaranteed  to  us,  and  everything 
move  on  peacefully  as  before  the  war.  My  friends,  there  are 
a  great  many  desirable  things;  but  the  question,  not  what  may 
be  wished,  but  what  may  be  obtained,  is  the  one  reasonable 
men  may  consider.  It  is  desirable  to  have  a  lovely  wife  and 
plenty  of  pretty  children ;  but  every  man  can 't  have  them.  I  tell 
you  now,  candidly,  there  is  no  more  possibility  of  reconstructing 
the  old  Union  and   reinstating   things  as   they  were  folir  years 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  497 

ago  than  exists  for  you  to  gather  up  the  scattered  bones  of 
your  sons  who  have  fallen  in  this  struggle  from  one  end  of  the 
country  to  the  other,  re-clothe  them  with  flesh,  fill  their  veins 
with  the  blood  they  have  so  generously  shed,  and  their  lungs 
with  the  same  breath  with  which  they  breathed  out  their  last 
prayer  for  their  country's  triumph  and  independence."  (Gov- 
ernor Vance,  of  North  Carolina,  in  a  speech  at  Wilkesboro, 
in  1864.) 

'No  one,  however,  knows  better  than  Abraham  Lincoln 
that  any  terms  he  might  offer  the  Southern  people  which  con- 
template their  restoration  to  his  bloody  and  brutal  Government, 
would  be  rejected  with  scorn  and  execration.  If,  instead  of 
devoting  to  death  our  President  and  military  and  civil  officers,  he 
had  proposed  to  make  Jefferson  Davis  his  successor,  Lee  Com^ 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Yankee  armies,  and  our  domestic  insti- 
tutions not  only  recognized  at  home,  but  readopted  in  the  Free 
States,  provided  the  South  would,  once  more  enter  the  Yankee 
Union,  there  is  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  in  the  Confederacy 
who  would  not  spit  upon  the  proposition.  We  desire  no  com- 
panionship upon  any  terms  with  a  Nation  of  robbers  and  mur- 
derers. The  miscreants,  whose  atrocities  in  this  war  have  caused 
the  whole  civilized  world  to  shudder,  must  keep,  henceforth, 
their  distance.  They  shall  not  be  our  masters,  and  we  would 
not  have  them  for  our  slaves."  ("  The  Dispatch,"  in  discussing 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Amnesty  Proclamation.) 

32— Q 


498  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

1864— WAR    OF    THE     REBELLION  — NOMINATIONS— CANDI- 
DATES—PLATFORMS— PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION- 
NO  SWAPPING  HORSES  WHILE  CROSSING 
A  STREAM— THE  CABINET. 

THE  friends  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  the 
undoubted  Union  men  of  the  country,  were 
greatly  divided  at  the  beginning  of  this  year.  In- 
deed, a  bitter  and  wicked  faction  was  organized 
among  those  who  had  been  supporters  of  the  Ad- 
ministration, and  classed  under  the  head  of  Repub- 
lican. For  a  time  the  influence  of  this  faction  was 
exceedingly  injurious  to  the  national  cause;  more 
so,  perhaps,  than  that  of  the  "  Copperheads,"  in  effect 
at  all  times  the  allies  of  the  Rebellion.  This  faction 
vehemently  opposed  the  renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
for  the  Presidency;  attacked  his  official  acts,  the 
policy  and  conduct  of  public  affairs  under  him ;  at- 
tacked his  character ;  and  in  its  general  course 
greatly  disturbed  the  country,  as  well  as  weakened 
foreign  confidence.  "  The  New  York  Tribune  "  and 
many  other  Republican  newspapers  systematically 
opposed  the  renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  although 
their  opposition  was  tempered,  to  some  extent,  by  a 
sense  of  the  injury  they  were  likely  to  render  the 
country.     But  few  of  these  men  could  or  would  ever 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  499 

see  that  they  were  then  placing  themselves  side  by 
side  with  the  enemies  of  the  country,  of  the  Union, 
and  would  be  so  fixed  and  adjudged  in  future  times. 
With  a  view  of  quieting  or  dispersing  this  faction, 
the  friends  of  the  Administration,  and  as  it  proved, 
the  true  friends  of  the  Union,  took  steps  to  hold  the 
nominating  convention  at  an  unusually  early  day. 
This  movement  met  the  energetic  protest  of  the  Re- 
publican malcontents  who  wanted  more  time  to  infect 
and  distract  public  sentiment.  Of  course,  the  leaders 
of  the  anti-Lincoln  or  anti-Administration  Republi- 
cans were  mainly  men  who  had  failed  in  their 
schemes  of  self-advancement,  or  failed  to  have  things 
their  own  way.  They  were  disappointed  aspirants 
for  military  glory;  disappointed  office-seekers;  dis- 
appointed schemers  for  this  and  that;  Abolitionists 
who  wanted  slavery  crushed  out  at  once  whether  it 
could  be  done  or  not ;  men  of  wild  and  unreasonable 
theories ;  men  who  had  asked  and  not  received ;  they 
were  of  the  men  who  always  rise  up  in  every  time 
of  calamity  to  disturb  the  common  harmony,  to  de- 
mand what  can  not  or  should  not  be  done,  and  who 
themselves  could  not  do  what  they  seemed  to  desire, 
if  all  possible  power  were  given  them. 

On  the  1st  of  May  these  Republican  factionists 
issued  a  call  for  a  convention  to  meet  in  Cleveland 
on  the  last  day  of  that  month.  In  this  call  it  was 
said  :  *'  The  time  has  come  for  all  independent  men, 
jealous  of  their  liberties  and  of  the  national  great- 
ness, to  confer  together  and  unite  to  resist  the  swell- 
ing invasion  of  an  open,  shameless,  and   unrestrained 


500  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

patronage  which  threatens  to  ingulf  under  its  de- 
structive wave  the  rights  of  the  people,  the  liberty 
and  dignity  of  the  Nation."  Several  other  calls  for 
the  same  convention  were  made,  and  all  of  them 
were  expressed  in  similarly  foolish  and  untrue  lan- 
guage, and  signed  by  men  then  and  ever  afterwards 
equally  undistinguished.  The  convention  met  at 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  according  to  the  call,  with  fifteen 
States  and  the  District  of  Columbia  represented  by 
self-appointed  delegates.  Most  of  them  were  the 
friends  of  Fremont,  and  a  very  large  per  cent  of  them 
were  Germans.  General  John  Cochrane,  of  New 
York,  was  permanent  president,  and  on  taking  the 
chair  made  a  very  extravagant  speech. 

John  C.  Fremont  was  nominated  by  acclamation 
as  the  candidate  for  President,  and  with  few  dissent- 
ins:  votes  John  Cochrane  was  chosen  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency.  A  platform  in  keeping  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  convention  was  adopted,  and  both  candi- 
dates accepted  the  "  distinguished  honor."  General 
Fremont's  letter  of  acceptance  dated  June  -i,  1864, 
was  marked  by  especial  severity  towards  the  Ad- 
ministration, and  was  a  source  of  deep  regret  to 
many  who  had  formerly  held  him,  perhaps,  unde- 
servedly high.  Of  this  letter  Governor  Morton,  of 
Indiana,  said  : — 

"  I  carried  the  standard  of  General  Fremont  to  the 
best  of  ray  poor  ability  through  the  canvass  of  1856,  and  I 
have  since  endeavored  to  sustain  liim,  not  only  as  a  politician, 
but  as  a  military  chieftain,  and  never  until  I  read  this 
letter  did  I  have  occasion  to    regret  what  I   have  done. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  501 

It  has  been  read  with  joy  by  his  enemies  and  with  pain 
by  his  friends,  and  omitting  one  or  two  sentences,  there 
is  nothing  in  it  that  might  not  have  been  written  or  sub- 
scribed without  inconsistency  by  Mr.  Vallandigham." 

This  was  the  general  verdict.  Fremont  finally 
declined  to  make  the  race,  not,  as  he  said  for  the 
benefit  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  whom,  in  his  greatness,  he 
considered  at  that  time  an  utter  failure,  but  for  the 
sake  of  defeating  McClellan  of  whom  he  thought 
much  worse.  This  was,  appropriately,  the  end  of 
the  political  and  military  careers  of  General  Fre- 
mont; and  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  he  had 
the  necessary  qualities  for  success  either  as  a  poli- 
tician or  a  general ;  a  statesman,  in  any  high  sense 
of  the  word,  he  was  not.  Not  always  in  a  practi- 
cable and  safe  sense  was  he  even  a  "Pathfinder." 

At  noon  on  Tuesday,  June  7th,  the  Republican 
or  Union  National  Convention  assembled  in  Balti- 
more. Robert  J.  Breckinridge,  the  distinguished 
Kentucky  Presbyterian  clergyman,  was  chosen  tem- 
porary president,  and  on  taking  the  chair,  made  a 
long,  stirring  speech,  in  which  he  clearly  indicated 
that  before  the  convention  began  its  work  it  was  well 
known  who  the  chief  on  the  ticket  would  be ;  the 
loyal  people  whom  the  convention  represented,  had 
but  one  candidate,  and  it  had  assembled  to  execute 
their  will.  In  the  afternoon  a  permanent  organiza- 
tion was  effected,  with  ex-Governor  William  Denni- 
son,  of  Ohio,  as  chairman. 

On  the  following  morning  the  matter  of  credentials 
was  disposed  of  by  admitting  the  Radical  Union  dele- 


502  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

gation  of  the  two  delegations  presenting  themselves 
from  Missouri,  and  ndmitting  delegates  from  Arkan- 
sas, Louisiana,  and  Tennessee  with  equal  voting  priv- 
ileges of  those  from  other  States,  although  this  course 
was  not  in  harmony  with  the  Act  of  Congress  ex- 
cluding the  people  of  rebel  States  from  participation 
in  national  affairs.  A  delegation  from  South  Carolina 
appeared,  but  this  State  was  not  admitted.  Dele- 
gates from  Florida  and  Virginia  were  admitted  with- 
out the  risrht  to  vote.  The  most  noted  character, 
perhaps,  in  this  convention  was  Parson  W.  G.  Brown- 
low,  of  Tennessee. 

It  was  now  moved  to  nominate  Mr.  Lincoln  by 
acclamation,  but  this  meeting  some  opposition,  a 
ballot  was  taken  giving  him  all  the  votes  of  the  con- 
vention except  those  from  Missouri,  which,  under 
instructions,  were  cast  for  General  Grant.  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's renomination  was  then  made  unanimous. 

The  candidates  for  the  Vice-Presidency  were 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  the  incumbent ;  Andrew  Johnson, 
Military  Governor  of  Tennessee ;  and  Daniel  S.  Dick- 
inson, of  New  York.  On  the  first  ballot  Mr.  John- 
son received  two  hundred,  Vice-President  Hamlin 
one  hundred  and  forty-five,  Mr.  Dickinson  one  hun- 
hundred  and  thirteen,  General  B.  F.  Butler  twenty- 
eight,  Lovell  H.  Rousseau,  of  Kentucky,  twenty-one, 
and  twelve  were  scattered  among  others.  Votes 
were  now  changed  in  favor  of  Andrew  Johnson,  and 
his  nomination  made  unanimous.  After  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  "  Executive  Committee  "  the  convention 
adjourned. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  503 

On  the  following  day,  Thursday  9th,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  waited  upon  at  the  White  House  and  duly  noti- 
fied of  his  renomination,  on  which  occasion  he  made 
a  brief  speech,  and  gave  unmistakable  cAndence  of 
his  gratification  with  the  action  of  the  convention 

The  following  is  Mr.  Lincoln's  formal  letter  of 
acceptance : — 

"  ExEcuTivK  Mansion,  Washington,  \ 
"  June  27,  1864.        j 

"  Hon.  William  Dennison  and  others,  a  Committee  of  the  National 
Union  Convention : 

"  Gentlemen, — Your  letter  of  the  14th  instant  for- 
mally notifying  me  that  I  have  been  nominated  by  the 
convention  you  represent  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States  for  four  years  from  the  4th  of  March  next,  has  been 
received.  The  nomination  is  gratefully  accepted,  as  the 
resolutions  of  the  convention,  called  the  platform,  are 
heartily  approved. 

"  While  the  resolution  in  regard  to  the  supplanting  of 
republican  government  upon  the  Western  Continent  is 
fully  concurred  in,  there  might  be  misunderstanding  were 
I  not  to  say  that  the  position  of  the  Government  in  rela- 
tion to  the  action  of  France  in  Mexico  as  assumed  through 
the  State  Department  and  indorsed  by  the  convention, 
^mong  the  measures  and  acts  of  the  Executive,  will  be 
faithfully  maintained  so  long  as  the  state  of  facts  shall  leave 
that  position  pertinent  and  applicable. 

"I  am  especially  gratified  that  the  soldier  and  the  sea- 
man were  not  forgotten  by  the  convention,  as  they  forever 
must  and  will  be  remembered  by  the  grateful  country  for 
whose  salvation  they  devote  their  lives. 

"Thanking  you  for  the  kind  and  complimentary  terms 
in  which  you  have  communicated  the  nomination  and 
other  proceedings  of  the  convention,  I  subscribe  myself, 

"  Your  obedient  servant,         Abraham  Lincoln." 


504  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

On  the  29th  of  August  the  Democrats  met  in 
convention  in  Chicago  and  nominated  General  George 
Brinton  McClellan  for  the  Presidency  and  George  H. 
Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  an  anti-war  Democrat,  for  the 
Vice- Presidency.  Some  account  of  this  convention 
is  to  be  found  in  the  last  volume  of  this  work. 

The  Republican  malcontents  still  made  some  effort 
to  organize  an  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  this 
finally  gave  way  under  the  strong  unanimity  with 
which  the  patriotic  and  the  friends  of  the  prosecution 
of  the  war  joined  in  his  support,  and  by  the  first 
Tuesday  in  November  the  followers  of  General  Mc- 
Clellan and  the  Chicago  platform  were  about  the 
only  visible  opponents  of  the  President  or  his  policy. 

The  strong  peace  wing  of  the  Democracy,  or  the 
Copperheads,  made  every  possible  attack  on  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, on  Avhat  they  supposed  to  be  his  private  con- 
duct as  well  as  his  administration  of  public  affairs, 
and  the  false  was  not  distinguished  from  the  true. 
The  newspapers  gave  a  wide  circulation  to  every 
slander.  Never  were  charges  so  vengeful  and  heart- 
less made  against  any  Presidential  candidate,  perhaps, 
as  those  against  Mr.  Lincoln  at  this  time.  That  they 
were  in  the  main  or  wholly  foundationless  fabrica- 
tions, no  one  would  now  question.  The  common 
history  of  political  campaigns  was,  however,  but  re- 
peating itself,  only  in  its  most  bitter  and  venomous 
form.  Nor  were  the  Republicans  far  behind  their 
misguided  opponents  in  the  use  of  those  instruments 
which  render  political  contests  disgraceful  and  dis- 
gusting to  the  refined  and  the  true.     As  the  contest 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  505 

deepened,  the  war  or  loyal  party  dropped  its  own 
dissensions,  and  the  anti-war  Democrats  became  rec- 
onciled to  their  candidate,  who  was  not  willing  to 
acknowledge  that  the  war  had  been  a  failure.  Mili- 
tary events  strengthened  the  side  of  the  Administra- 
tion, and  long  before  the  day  of  the  election  the 
loyal  people  had  decided  who  should  be  President, 
had  decided  that  it  was  unwise  and  unsafe  to  swap 
horses  while  crossing  a  stream. 

During  all  this  time  Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  usual 
unswerving  in  well-doing.  He  neglected  no  just  and 
reasonable  method  of  producing  harmony  in  his  own 
party,  or  among  the  temporary  supporters  of  the 
Administration  and  the  war.  On  the  23d  of  Sep- 
tember, 1864,  he  invited  Mr,  Blair  to  withdraw  from 
his  Cabinet,  and  in  his  place  he  put  Ex-Governor 
William  Dennison,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Chase  also  with- 
drew from  the  Cabinet,  and  in  July,  1864,  William 
Pitt  Fessenden,  of  Maine,  took  his  position,  giving 
place  in  March,  1865,  to  Hugh  McCnlloch.  In  Janu- 
ary of  ihe  previous  year  Caleb  B.  Smith  had  been 
displaced  in  the  Interior  Department  by  John  P. 
Usher,  of  Indiana. 

These  changes,  to  a  great  extent,  were  made  in 
accordance  with  the  demands  of  the  party,  and  not 
from  any  want  of  harmony  with  the  President.  Mr. 
Blair  had  been  an  able  and  practical  Postmaster- 
General,  and  under  his  management  and  suggestion 
were  broufjht  about  some  valuable  reforms  in  the  mail 
service  of  the  country.  Although  some  of  these  re- 
forms were  expensive  they  have  greatly  contributed 


506  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

towards  the  perfection  of  the  system,  find,  several 
causes  operating  in  his  favor,  he  was  enabled  to  over- 
come to  a  great  extent  the  long  standing  deficits  in 
the  revenue  of  his  Department.  Under  him  the  free 
delivery  system  in  cities,  and  the  railway  service 
were  greatly  and  beneficially  modified  or  entirelv 
changed ;  the  postal  money-order  system  was  intro- 
duced, which,  after  the  first  year,  has  continually 
brought  a  net  income  to  the  Department;  foreign 
postal  conventions  were  effected,  and  other  progress- 
ive and  beneficial  acts  serve  to  leave  the  mark  of 
this  Cabinet  officer  upon  the  history  of  public  admin- 
istrations. Under  Mr.  Blair's  energetic  successor  the 
management  of  this  useful  Department  of  the  Govern- 
ment was  efficient  and  admirable. 

Of  the  Treasury  Department  little  need  be  said 
here.  The  "  greenbacks'  "  author  will  not  readily  be 
forgotten,  in  the  face  of  the  financial  ruins  of  the 
past,  by  a  race  of  money-lovers  and  money  getters. 
The  personal  relations  between  the  President  and 
Mr.  Chase  were  not,  probably,  the  best,  but  there  had 
been  no  time  after  the  occasion  arose,  in  the  death  of 
Chief  Justice  Taney,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  design 
oflfering  this  successful  financier  and  aspirant  for  the 
Presidency  the  place  he  took  on  the  Supreme  Bench. 

On  the  18th  of  July,  1864,  the  President  issued 
a  proclamation  calling  for  five  hundred  thousand 
soldiers,  and  providing  for  a  draft  to  supply  defi- 
ciencies. On  the  20th  of  December  another  call  was 
issued  for  three  hundred  thousand  more.  Two  other 
calls,  in  February  and  March,  had  also  been  made  in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  507 

this  year,  amounting  to  seven  hundred  thousand,  so 
that  on  this  election  year  one  million  and  a  half  of 
troops  hnd  been  called  for  by  the  President  in  spite 
of  the  "Opposition"  cry  of  "no  more  men  and  not  a 
dollar  of  money  for  this  cruel  war."  Besides  these 
enormous  demands  on  the  people,  a  hundred  thousand 
hundred  days'  men  were  gratuitously  furnished  by 
the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and 
Wisconsin. 

Besides  working,  the  President  wrote  several  im- 
portant letters  during  this  political  canvass,  nor  did 
he  hesitate  to  speak  when  called  upon  to  do  so.  On 
the  occasion  of  a  serenade  on  the  19th  of  October, 
Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  in  front  of  the  White  House 
and  said  : — 

"Friends  and  Fellow-citizens, — I  am  notified 
that  this  is  a  compliment  paid  me  by  the  loyal  Maryland- 
ers  resident  in  this  District.  I  infer  that  the  adoption  of 
the  new  Constitution  for  that  State  furnishes  the  occasion, 
and  that  in  your  view  the  extirpation  of  slavery  consti- 
tutes the  chief  merit  of  the  new  Constitution.  Most 
heartily  do  I  congratulate  you  and  Maryland,  and  the  Na- 
tion and  the  world,  upon  the  event.  I  regret  that  it  did 
not  occur  two  years  sooner,  which  I  am  sure  would  have 
saved  to  the  Nation  more  money  than  would  have  met  all 
the  private  loss  incident  to  the  measure.  But  it  has  come 
at  last,  and  I  sincerely  hope  its  friends  may  fully  realize 
all  their  anticipations  of  good  from  it,  and  that  its  oppo- 
nents may  by  its  effect  be  agreeably  and  profitably  dis- 
appointed. 

"A  word  upon  another  subject.  Something  was  said 
by  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  his  recent  speech  at  Auburn, 
which  has  been  construed  by  some  into  a  threat  that  if  I 


508  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

should  be  beaten  at  the  election,  I  will,  between  then 
and  the  end  of  my  Constitutional  term,  do  what  I  may 
be  able  to  ruin  the  Government.  Others  regard  the  fact 
that  the  Chicago  Convention  adjourned,  not  sine  die,  but 
to  meet  again  if  called  to  do  so  by  a  particular  individ- 
ual, as  theintimation  of  a  purpose  that  if  their  nominee 
shall  be  elected  he  will  at  once  seize  control  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

"  I  hope  the  good  people  will  permit  themselves  to 
suffer  no  uneasiness  on  either  point.  I  am  struggling  to 
maintain  the  Government;  not  to  overthrow  it.  I  am 
struggling  especially  to  prevent  others  from  overthrowing 
it,  and  I  therefore  say,  that  if  I  shall  live,  I  shall  remain 
President  until  the  4th  of  next  March,  and  that  whoever 
shall  be  constitutionally  elected  thereto  in  November, 
shall  be  duly  installed  as  President  on  the  4th  of  March, 
and  that  in  the  meantime  I  shall  do  my  utmost,  that  who- 
ever is  to  hold  the  helm  for  the  next  voyage  shall  start 
with  the  best  possible  chance  to  save  the  ship.  This  is 
due  to  the  people,  both  on  principle  and  under  the  Con- 
stitution. Their  will.  Constitutionally  expressed,  is  the  ul- 
timate law  for  all. 

"  If  they  should  deliberately  resolve  to  have  immediate 
peace,  even  at  the  loss  of  their  country  and  their  liberties, 
I  know  not  the  power  or  the  right  to  resist  them.  .  It  is 
their  own  business,  and  they  must  do  as  they  please  with 
their  own.  I  believe,  however,  they  are  still  resolved  to 
preserve  their  country  and  their  liberty,  and  in  this,  in 
office  or  out  of  it,  I  am  resolved  to  stand  by  them. 

"  I  may  add  that  in  this  purpose,  to  save  the  country 
and  its  liberties,  no  classes  of  people  seem  so  nearly  unan- 
imous as  the  soldiers  in  the  field  and  the  seamen  afloat. 
Do  they  not  have  the  hardest  of  it?  Who  should  quail 
while  they  do  not? 

"  God  bless  the  soldiers  and  seamen,  with  all  their 
brave  commanders !" 


ABRAHAM-  LINCOLN.  509 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  successful  by  an  over- 
whelming majority.  Some  further  account  of  this 
election  is  to  be  found  in  the  last  volume  of  this 
work.  How  the  President  himself  viewed  the  result 
may  be  seen  in  the  following  speech,  delivered  at 
the  White  House  on  the  night  of  the  election  : — 

"  Friends  and  Fellow-citizens, — Even  before  I 
had  been  informed  by  you  that  this  compliment  was  paid 
me  by  loyal  citizens  of  Pennsylvania  friendly  to  me,  I  had 
inferred  that  you  were  of  that  portion  of  my  countrymen 
who  think  that  the  best  interests  of  the  Nation  are  to  be 
subserved  by  the  support  of  the  present  Administration. 
I  do  not  pretend  to  say  that  you,  who  think  so,  embrace 
all  the  patriotism  and  loyalty  of  the  country  ;  but  I  do 
believe,  and  I  trust  without  personal  interest,  that  the 
welfare  of  the  country  does  require  that  such  support  and 
indorsement  be  given.  I  earnestly  believe  that  the  con- 
sequences of  this  day's  work,  if  it  be  as  you  assume,  and 
as  now  seems  probable,  will  be  to  the  lasting  advantage 
if  not  to  the  very  salvation  of  the  country.  I  can  not,  at 
this  hour,  say  what  has  been  the  result  of  the  election,  but 
whatever  it  may  be,  I  have  no  desire  to  modify  this  opin- 
ion; that  all  who  have  labored  to-day  in  behalf  of  the 
Union  organization,  have  wrought  for  the  best  interest  of 
their  country  and  the  world,  not  only  for  the  present  but 
for  all  future  ages.  I  am  thankful  to  God  for  this  ap- 
proval of  the  people ;  but  while  deeply  grateful  for  this 
mark  of  their  confidence  in  me,  if  I  know  my  heart,  ray 
gratitude  is  free  from  any  taint  of  personal  triumph.  I 
do  not  impugn  the  motives  of  any  one  opposed  to  me.  It 
is  no  pleasure  to  me  to  triumph  over  any  one,  but  I  give 
thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  this  evidence  of  the  people's 
resolution  to  stand  by  free  government  and  the  rights  of 
humanity." 


510  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

On  the  10th  of  November,  General  Grant,  who 
was  almost  equally  concerned  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
the  result  of  the  election,  wrote  : — 

"  City  Point,  November  10,  1864—10.30  P.  M. 
"  Hon.  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  AVar : — 

"  Enough  now  seems  to  be  known  to  say  who  is  to  hold 
the  reins  of  Government  for  the  next  four  years. 

"  Congratulate  the  President  for  me  for  this  double 
victory. 

"  The  election  having  passed  off  quietly,  no  bloodshed 
or  riot  throughout  the  land,  is  a  victory  worth  more  to  the 
country  than  a  battle  won. 

"  Rebeldom  and  Europe  will  construe  it  so. 

"  U.  S.  Grant,  Lieutenant-General." 

On  the  same  night  the  President  had  just  made 
this  remarkable  speech  to  a  large  procession  gath- 
ered around  the  Executive  Mansion : — 

"  Friends  and  Fellow-citizens, — It  has  long  been 
a  grave  question  whether  any  government  not  too  strong 
for  the  liberties  of  its  people  can  be  strong  enough  to 
maintain  its  own  existence  in  great  emergencies.  On  this 
point  the  present  Rebellion  brought  our  Republic  to  a 
severe  test;  and  a  Presidential  election,  occurring  in  regular 
course  during  the  Rebellion,  added  not  a  little  to  the 
strain. 

"  If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to  the  utmost  of 
their  strength  by  the  Rebellion,  must  they  not  fall  when 
divided  and  partially  paralyzed  by  a  political  war  among 
themselves? 

"But  the  election  was  a  necessity.  We  can  not  have 
free  government  without  elections  ;  and  if  the  Rebellion 
could  force  us  to  forego  or  postpone  a  national  election, 
it    might   fairly    claim    to    have    already    conquered    and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  511 

ruined  us.  The  strife  of  the  election  is  but  human  nature 
practically  applied  to  the  facts  of  the  case.  What  has 
occurred  in  this  case  must  ever  recur  in  similar  cases. 
Human  nature  will  not  change.  In  any  future  great  na- 
tional trial,  compared  with  the  men  of  this,  we  shall  have 
as  weak  and  as  strong,  as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad  and 
as  good. 

"Let  us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this,  as  philos- 
ophy to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs 
to  be  revenged. 

"  But  the  election,  along  with  its  incidental  and  unde- 
sirable strife,  has  done  good,  too.  It  has  demonstrated 
that  a  people's  government  can  sustain  a  national  election 
in  the  midst  of  a  great  civil  war.  Until  now,  it  has  not 
been  known  to  the  world  that  this  was  a  possibility.  It 
shows,  also,  how  sound  and  how  strong  we  still  are.  It 
shows  that,  even  among  candidates  of  the  same  party,  he 
who  is  most  devoted  to  the  Union,  and  most  opposed  to 
treason,  can  receive  most  of  the  people's  votes.  It  shows, 
also,  to  the  extent  yet  known,  that  we  have  more  men 
now  than  we  had  when  the  war  began.  Gold  is  good 
in  its  place,  but  living,  brave,  patriotic  men,  are  better 
than  gold. 

"  But  the  Rebellion  continues ;  and  now  that  the  election 
is  over,  may  not  all,  having  a  common  interest,  reunite  in 
a  common  eifort  to  save  our  common  country?  For  my 
own  part,  I  have  striven,  and  will  strive,  to  avoid  plac- 
ing any  obstacle  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I  have  been 
here,  I  have  not  willingly  planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's 
bosom. 

"While  I  am  deeply  sensible  to  the  high  compliment 
of  a  re-election,  and  duly  grateful,  as  I  trust,  to  Almighty 
God,  for  having  directed  my  countrymen  to  a  right  con- 
clusion, as  I  think,  for  their  own  good,  it  adds  nothing  to 
my  satisfaction  that  any  other  man  may  be  disappointed 
or  pained  by  the  result. 


512  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"  May  I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  with  me  to 
join  with  me   in  the  same  spirit  towards  those  who  have'' 

"  And  now,  let  me  close  by  asking  three  hearty  cheers 
for  our  brave  soldiers  and  seamen,  and  their  gallant  and 
skillful  commanders." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  513 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

1864 -WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— CONGRESS  IN  THE  WINTER 

OF  1864— LAST  SESSION  UNDER  MR.  LINCOLN— 

FOCfRTH  ANNUAL  MESSAGE— END 

OF  SLAVERY. 

ON  Monday,  December  5,  1864,  Congress  again 
assembled  (last  session  of  the  "  Thirty-eighth 
Congress"),  and  on  the  following  day  the  President 
sent  to  both  Houses  his 

FOURTH  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. 

Fellow-citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: — 

Again  the  blessings  of  health  and  abundant  harvests  claim 
our  profoundest  gratitude  to  Almighty  God. 

The  condition  of  our  foreign  affairs  is  reasonably  satisfactory. 

Mexico  continues  to  be  a  theater  of  civil  war.  While  our 
political  relations  with  that  country  have  undergone  no  change, 
we  have,  at  the  same  time,  strictly  maintained  neutrality  be- 
tween the  belligerents. 

At  the  request  of  the  States  of  Costa  Rica  and  Nicaragua, 
a  competent  engineer  has  been  authorized  to  make  a  survey  of 
the  river  San  Juan  and  the  port  of  San  Juan.  It  is  a  source 
of  much  satisfaction  that  the  difhculties  which  for  a  moment 
excited  some  political  apprehensions,  and  caused  a  closing  of 
the  iuteroceanic  transit  route,  have  been  amicably  adjusted,  and 
that  there  is  a  good  prospect  that  the  route  will  soon  be  re- 
opened with  an  increase  of  capacity  and  adaptation.  We  could 
not  exaggerate  either  the  commercial  or  the  political  importance 
of  that  great  improvement. 

It  would  be  doing  injustice  to  an  important  South  Ameri- 
can State  not  to  acknowledge  the  directness,  frankness,  and  cor- 

33— Q 


514  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

diality  with  which  the  United  States  of  Colombia  have  entered 
into  intimate  relations  with  this  Government.  A  claims  con- 
vention has  been  constituted  to  complete  the  unfinished  work 
of  the  one  which  closed  its  session  in  1861. 

The  new  liberal  constitution  of  Venezuela  having  gone  into 
effect  with  the  universal  acquiescence  of  the  people,  the  govern- 
ment under  it  has  been  recognized,  and  diplomatic  intercourse 
with  it  has  opened  in  a  cordial  and  friendly  spirit.  The  long 
deferred  Aves  Island  claim  has  been  satisfactorily  paid  and 
discharged. 

Mutual  payments  have  been  made  of  the  claims  awarded  by 
the  late  joint  commission  for  the  settlement  of  claims  between 
the  United  States  and  Peru.  An  earnest  and  cordial  friendship 
continues  to  exist  between  the  two  countries,  and  such  efforts 
as  were  in  my  power  have  been  used  to  remove  misunderstand- 
ing and  avert  a  threatened  war  between  Peru  and  Spain. 

Our  relations  are  of  the  most  friendly  nature  with  Chili, 
the  Argentine  Republic,  Bolivia,  Costa  Rica,  Paraguay,  San 
Salvador,  and  Hayti. 

During  the  past  year  no  differences  of  any  kind  have  arisen 
with  any  of  those  republics,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  their  sym- 
pathies Avith  the  United  States  are  constantly  expressed  with 
cordiality  and  earnestness. 

The  claim  arising  from  the  seizure  of  the  cargo  of  the  brig 
Macedonian  in  1821  has  been  paid  in  full  by  the  government 
of  Chili. 

Civil  war  continues  in  the  Spanish  part  of  San  Domingo, 
apparently  without  prospect  of  an  early  close. 

Official  correspondence  has  been  freely  opened  with  Liberia, 
and  it  gives  us  a  pleasing  view  of  social  and  political  progress 
in  that  Republic.  It  may  be  expected  to  derive  new  vigor  from 
American  influence,  improved  by  the  rapid  disappearance  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States. 

I  solicit  your  authority  to  furnish  to  the  Republic  a  gun-boat 
at  moderate  cost,  to  be  reimbursed  to  the  United  States  by  in- 
stallments. Such  a  vessel  is  needed  for  the  safety  of  that  State 
against  the  native  African  races ;  and  in  Liberian  hands  it 
Avould  be  more  effective  in  arresting  the  African  slave-trade 
than  a  squadron  in  our  own  hands.     The  possession  of  the  least 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  515 

orgnnizpfl  naval  force  would  stimulate  a  generous  ambition  in 
the  Republic,  and  the  confidence  Avhich  we  should  manifest  by 
furnishing  it  would  win  forbearance  and  favor  towards  the  col- 
ony from  all  civilized  nations. 

The  proposed  overland  telegraph  between  America  and  Eu- 
rope, by  the  way  of  Behring's  Straits  and  Asiatic  Russia,  Avhich 
was  sanctioned  by  Congress  at  the  last  session,  has  been  under- 
taken, under  very  favorable  circumstances,  by  an  association  of 
American  citizens,  with  the  cordial  good-will  and  support  as 
well  of  this  Government  as  of  those  of  Great  Britain  and  Rus- 
sia. Assurances  have  been  received  from  most  of  the  South 
American  States  of  their  high  appreciation  of  the  enterprise, 
and  their  readiness  to  co-operate  in  constructing  lines  tributary 
to  that  world-encircling  communication.  I  learn,  with  much 
satisfaction,  that  the  noble  design  of  a  telegraphic  communica- 
tion between  the  eastern  coast  of  America  and  Great  Britain 
has  been  renewed  with  full  expectation  of  its  early  accom- 
plishment. 

Thus  it  is  hoped,  that  with  the  return  of  domestic  peace  the 
country  will  be  able  to  resume  with  energy  and  advantage  its 
former  high  career  of  commerce  and  civilization. 

Our  very  popular  and  estimable  representative  in  Egypt 
died  in  April  last.  An  unpleasant  altercation  which  arose  be- 
tween the  temporary  incumbent  of  the  office  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  pasha  resulted  in  a  suspension  of  intercourse.  The 
evil  was  promptly  corrected  on  the  arrival  of  the  successor  in 
the  consulate,  and  our  relations  with  Egypt,  as  well  as  our  re- 
lations Avith  the  Barbary  powers,  are  entirely  satisfactory. 

The  rebellion  which  has  so  long  been  flagrant  in  China  has 
at  last  been  suppressed,  with  the  co-operating  good  offices  of 
this  Government,  and  of  the  other  Western  commercial  states. 
The  judicial  consular  establishment  there  has  become  very  dif- 
ficult and  onerous,  and  it  will  need  legislative  revision  to  adapt 
it  to  the  extension  of  our  commerce,  and  to  the  more  intimate 
intercourse  which  has  been  instituted  with  the  government  and 
people  of  that  vast  empire.  China  seems  to  be  accepting  with 
hearty  good-will  the  conventional  laws  which  regulate  commer- 
cial and  social  intercourse  among  the  Western  nations. 

Owing  to  the  peculiar  situation  of  Japan,  and   the  anojna- 


516  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

lous  form  of  its  government,  the  action  of  that  empire  in  per- 
forming treaty  stipulations  is  inconstant  and  capricious.  Nev- 
ertheless, good  progress  has  been  effected  by  the  Western 
powers,  moving  with  enlightened  concert.  Our  own  pecuniary 
claims  have  been  allowed,  or  put  in  course  of  settlement,  and 
the  inland  sea  has  been  reopened  to  commerce.  There  is  reason 
also  to  believe  that  these  proceedings  have  increased  rather  than 
diminished  the  friendship  of  Japan  towards  the  United  States. 

The  ports  of  Norfolk,  Fernandina,  and  Peusacola  have  been 
opened  by  proclamation.  It  is  hoped  that  foreign  merchants 
will  now  consider  whether  it  is  not  safe  and  more  profitable  to 
themselves,  as  well  as  just  to  the  United  States,  to  resort  to 
these  and  other  open  ports,  than  it  is  to  pursue,  through  many 
hazards,  and  at  vast  cost,  a  contraband  trade  with  other  ports 
which  are  closed,  if  not  by  actual  military  operations,  at  least 
by  a  lawful  and  effective  blockade. 

For  myself,  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  power  and  duty  of  the 
Executive,  under  the  law  of  nations,  to  exclude  enemies  of  the 
human  race  from  an  asylum  in  the  United  States.  If  Congress 
should  think  that  proceedings  in  such  caces  lack  the  authority 
of  law,  or  ought  to  be  further  regulated  by  it,  I  recommend 
that  provision  be  made  for  effectually  preventing  foreign  slave- 
traders  from  acquiring  domicile  and  facilities  for  their  criminal 
occupation  in  our  country. 

It  is  possible  that  if  this  were  a  new  and  open  question,  the 
maritime  powers,  with  the  light  they  now  enjoy,  would  not  con- 
cede the  privileges  of  a  naval  belligerent  to  the  insurgents  of 
the  United  States,  destitute  as  they  are  and  always  have  been, 
equally  of  ships  and  of  ports  and  harbors.  Disloyal  emissaries 
have  been  neither  less  assiduous  nor  more  successful  during  the 
last  year  than  they  were  before  that  time,  in  their  efforts,  under 
favor  of  that  privilege,  to  embroil  our  country  in  foreign  wars. 
The  desire  and  determination  of  the  maritime  States  to  defeat 
that  design  are  believed  to  be  as  sincere  as,  and  can  not  be  more 
earnest  than,  our  own. 

Nevertheless,  unforeseen  difficulties  have  arisen,  especially  in 
Brazilian  and  British  ports,  and  on  the  northern  boundary  of 
the  United  States,  which  have  required,  and  are  likely  to  con- 
tinue to  require,  the  practice  of  constant  vigilance,  and  a  just  and 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  517 

conciliatory  spirit  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as 
of  the  nations  concerned  and  their  governments.  Commission- 
ers have  been  appointed  under  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 
on  the  adjustment  of  the  claims  of  the  Hudson  Bay  and  Piiget's 
Sound  Agricultural  Companies  in  Oregon,  and  are  now  pro- 
ceeding to  the  execution  of  the  trust  assigned  them. 

In  view  of  the  insecurity  of  life  in  the  region  adjacent  to 
the  Canadian  border  by  recent  assaults  and  depredations  com- 
mitted by  inimical  and  desperate  persons  who  are  harbored 
there,  it  has  been  thought  proper  to  give  notice  that  after  the 
expiration  of  six  months,  the  period  conditionally  stipulated  in 
the  existing  arrangements  with  Great  Britain,  the  United  States 
must  hold  themselves  at  liberty  to  increase  their  naval  arma- 
ment upon  the  lakes,  if  they  shall  find  that  proceeding  necessary. 
The  condition  of  the  border  will  necessarily  come  into  consider- 
ation in  connection  with  the  question  of  continuing  or  modifying 
the  rights  of  transit  from  Canada  through  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  the  regulation  of  imposts,  which  were  temporarily  estab- 
lished by  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  of  the  5th  of  June,  1864.  I 
desire,  however,  to  be  understood  while  making  this  statement, 
that  the  colonial  authorities  are  not  deemed  to  be  intentionally 
unjust  or  unfriendly  towards  the  United  States,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  with  the  approval 
of  the  imperial  government,  they  will  take  the  necessary  meas- 
ures to  prevent  new  incursions  across  the  border. 

The  Act  passed  at  the  last  session  for  the  encouragement  of 
•  emigration  has,  as  far  as  was  possible,  been  put  into  operation. 
It  seems  to  need  an  amendment  which  will  enable  the  officers 
of  the  Government  to  prevent  the  practice  of  frauds  against  the 
immigrants  while  on  their  way  and  on  their  arrival  in  the  ports, 
so  as  to  secure  them  here  a  free  choice  of  avocations  and  places 
of  settlement.  A  liberal  disposition  towards  this  great  national 
policy  is  manifested  by  most  of  the  European  states,  and  ought 
to  be  reciprocated  on  our  part  by  giving  the  immigrants  effect- 
ive national  protection.  I  regard  our  immigrants  as  one  of 
the  principal  replenishing  streams  which  are  appointed  by 
Providence  to  repair  the  ravages  of  internal  war,  and  its  wastes 
of  national  strength  and  health.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to 
secure  the  flow  of  that  stream  in  its  present  fullness,  and  to  that 


518  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

end  the  Government  must,  in  every  way,  make  it  manifest 
that  it  neither  needs  nor  designs  to  impose  involuntary  military 
service  upon  those  Avho  come  from  other  lands  to  cast  their  lot 
in  our  country. 

The  financial  affairs  of  the  Government  have  been  success- 
fully administered  during  the  last  year.  The  legislation  of  the 
last  session  of  Congress  has  beneficially  affected  the  revenues, 
although  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  to  experience  the 
full  effect  of  several  of  the  provisions  of  the  acts  of  Congress 
imposing  increased  taxation. 

The  receipts  during  the  year,  from  all  sources,  upon  the 
basis  of  wairants  signed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in- 
cluding loans  and  the  balance  in  the  Treasury  on  the  first  day 
of  July,  1863,  were  one  billion  three  hundred  and  ninety-four 
million  seven  hundred  and  ninety-six  thousand  and  seven  dol- 
lars and  sixty-two  cents ;  and  the  aggregate  disbursements,  upon 
the  same  basis,  were  one  billion  two  hundred  and  ninety-eight 
million  fifty-six  thousand  one  hundred  and  one  dollars  and 
eighty-nine  cents,  leaving  a  balance  in  the  Treasury,  as  shown 
by  warrants,  of  ninety-six  million  seven  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  five  dollars  and  seventy-three 
cents. 

Deduct  from  these  amounts  the  amount  of  the  principal  of 
the  public  debt  redeemed,  and  the  amount  of  issues  in  substitu- 
tion therefor,  and  the  actual  cash  operations  of  the  Treasury 
were  :  receipts,  eight  hundred  and  eighty-four  million  seventy- 
six  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-six  dollars  and  fifty-seven  • 
cents ;  disbursements,  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five  million  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  and  eighty-seven  dollars  and 
eighty-six  cents ;  which  leaves  a  cash  balance  in  the  Treasury 
of  eighteen  million  eight  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  five 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents. 

Of  the  receipts,  there  were  derived  from  customs  one  hun- 
dred and  two  million  three  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  one 
hundred  and  fifty-two  dollars  and  ninety-nine  cents;  from  lands, 
five  hundred  and  eighty-eight  thousand  three  hundred  and 
thirty-three  dollars  and  twenty-nine  cents;  from  direct  taxes, 
four  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  dollars  and  ninety-six  cents  ;   from  internal  revenue,  one 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  519 

hundred  and  nine  million  seven  hundred  and  forty-one  thousand 
one  hundred  and  thirty-four  dollars  and  ten  cents ;  from  mis- 
cellaneous sources,  forty-seven  million  five  hundred  and  eleven 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-eight  dollars  and  ten  cents ; 
and  from  loans  applied  to  actual  expenditures,  including  former 
balance,  six  hundred  and  twenty-three  million  four  hundred 
and  forty-three  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty-nine  dollars 
and  thirteen  cents. 

There  were  disbursed,  for  the  civil  service,  twenty-seven 
million  five  hundred  and  five  thousand  five  hundred  and  nine- 
ty-nine dollars  and  forty-six  cents;  for  pensions  and  Indians, 
seven  million  five  hundred  and  seventeen  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred and  thirty  dollars  and  ninety-seven  cents ;  for  the  War 
Department,  six  hundred  and  ninety  million  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty  two  dollars 
and  ninety-seven  cents ;  for  the  Navy  Department,  eighty-five 
million  seven  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand  two  hundred 
and  ninety-two  dollars  and  seventy-seven  cents ;  for  interest  of 
the  public  debt,  fifty-three  million  six  hundred  and  eighty -five 
thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty-one  dollars  and  sixty-nine 
cents — making  an  aggregate  of  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five 
million  two  hundred  and  thirty-four  thousand  and  eighty-seven 
dollars  and  eighty-six  cents,  and  leaving  a  balance  in  the  Treas- 
ury of  eighteen  million  eight  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand 
five  hundred  and  fifty-eight  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents,  as 
before  stated. 

For  the  actual  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  first  quar- 
ter, and  the  estimated  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  three 
remaining  quarters  of  the  current  fiscal  year,  and  the  general 
operations  of  the  Treasury  in  detail,  I  refer  you  to  the  report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  I  concur  with  him  in  the 
opinion  that  the  proportion  of  moneys  required  to  meet  the  ex- 
penses consequent  upon  the  war  derived  from  taxation  should 
be  still  further  increased  ;  and  I  earnestly  invite  your  attention 
to  this  subject,  to  the  end  that  there  may  be  such  additional  leg- 
islation as  shall  be  required  to  meet  the  just  expectations  of  the  ' 
Secretary. 

The  public  debt  on  the  first  day  of  July  last,  as  appears  by 
the  books  of  the  Treasury,  amounted  to  one  billion  seven  hun- 


520  •       LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

dred  and  forty  million  six  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  four 
hundred  and  eight-nine  dollars  and  forty-nine  cents.  Probably, 
should  the  war  continue  for  another  year,  that  amount  may  be 
increased  by  not  far  from  five  hundred  millions.  Held  as  it  is 
for  the  most  part  by  our  own  people,  it  has  become  a  substantial 
branch  of  national  though  private  property. 

For  obvious  reasons,  the  more  nearly  this  property  can  be 
distributed  among  all  the  people,  the  better.  To  favor  such  a 
general  distribution,  greater  inducements  to  become  owners 
might,  perhaps,  with  good  effect  and  without  iujury,  be  presented 
to  persons  of  limited  means.  With  this  view,  I  suggest  whether 
it  might  not  be  both  expedient  and  competent  for  Congress  to 
provide  that  a  limited  amount  of  some  future  issue  of  public 
securities  might  be  held  by  any  bona  fide  purchaser  exempt 
from  taxation  and  from  seizure  for  debt,  under  such  restrictions 
and  limitation  as  might  be  necessary  to  guard  against  abuse  of 
so  important  a  privilege.  This  would  enable  prudent  persons  to 
set  aside  a  small  amount  against  a  possible  day  of  want. 

Privileges  like  these  would  render  the  possession  of  such 
securities  to  the  amount  limited  most  desirable  to  every  person 
of  small  means,  who  might  be  able  to  save  enough  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  great  advantage  of  citizens  being  creditors  as  well 
as  debtors,  with  relation  to  the  public  debt,  is  obvious.  Men 
readily  perceive  that  they  can  not  be  much  oppressed  by  a  debt 
which  they  owe  to  themselves. 

The  public  debt  on  the  first  day  of  July  last,  although  some- 
what exceeding  the  estimate  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
made  to  Congress  at  the  commencement  of  last  session,  falls 
short  of  the  estimate  of  that  officer  made  in  the  succeeding 
December  as  to  its  probable  amount  at  the  beginning  of  this 
year,  by  the  sum  of  three  million  nine  hundred  and  ninety-five 
thousand  and  seventy-nine  dollars  and  thirty-three  cents.  This 
fact  exhibits  a  satisfactory  condition  and  conduct  of  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Treasury. 

The  national  banking  system  is  proving  to  be  acceptable  to 
capitalists  and  to  the  people.  On  the  25th  day  of  November 
five  hundred  and  eighty-four  national  banks  had  been  organized, 
a  considerable  number  of  which  were  conversions  from  State 
banks.       Changes  from  the  State  system  to  the  national  system 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  521 

are  rapidly  taking  place,  and  it  is  hoped  that  very  soon  there 
will  be  in  the  United  States  no  banks  of  issue  not  authorized  by 
Congress,  and  no  bank-note  circulation  not  secured  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. That  the  Government  and  the  people  will  derive 
general  benefit  from  this  change  in  the  banking  systems  of  the 
country  can  hardly  be  questioned.  The  national  system  will 
create  a  reliable  and  permanent  influence  in  support  of  the 
national  credit  and  protect  the  people  against  losses  in  the  use 
of  paper  money.  Whether  or  not  any  further  legislation  is  ad- 
visable for  the  suppression  of  State  bank  issues,  it  will  be  for 
Congress  to  determine.  It  seems  quite  clear  that  the  Treasury 
can  not  be  satisfactorily  conducted  unless  the  Government  can 
exercise  a  restraining  power  over  the  bank-note  circulation  of 
the  country. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  accompanying 
documents  will  detail  the  campaigns  of  the  armies  in  the  field 
since  the  date  of  the  last  annual  message,  and  also  the  opera- 
tions of  the  several  Administrative  bureaus  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment during  the  last  year.  It  will  also  specify  the  measures 
deemed  essential  for  the  national  defense,  and  to  keep  up  and 
supply  the  requisite  military  force. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  presents  a  compre- 
hensive and  satisfactory  exhibit  of  the  afFaii's  of  that  Depart- 
ment, and  of  the  naval  service.  It  is  a  subject  of  congratulation 
and  laudable  pride  to  our  countrymen,  that  a  navy  of  such  vast 
proportions  has  been  organized  in  so  brief  a  period,  and  con- 
ducted Avith  so  much  efiiciency  and  success. 

The  general  exhibit  of  the  navy,  including  vessels  under 
construction  on  the  first  of  December,  1864,  shows  a  total  of  six 
hundred  and  seventy-one  vessels,  carrying  four  thousand  six 
hundred  and  ten  guns  and  five  hundred  and  ten  thousand  three 
hundred  and  ninety-six  tons,  being  an  actual  increase  during 
the  year  over  and  above  all  losses  by  shipwreck  or  in  battle,  of 
eighty-three  vessels,  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  guns,  and 
forty-two  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty-seven  tons.  The 
total  number  of  men  at  this  time  in  the  naval  service,  including 
officers,  is  about  fifty-one  thousand.  There  have  been  captured 
by  the  navy  during  the  year,  three  hundred  and  twenty-four 
vessels,  and  the  whole  number  of  naval  captures  since  hostili- 


522  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ties  commenced  is  oue  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine,  of  which  two  hundred  and  sixty-seven  are  steamers.  The 
gross  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale  of  condemned  prize  prop- 
erty thus  far  reported,  amount  to  fourteen  million  three  liundred 
and  ninety-six  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  fifty- 
cue  cents.  A  large  amount  of  such  proceeds  is  still  under  adju- 
dication, and  yet  to  be  reported.  The  total  expenditures  of  the 
Navy  Department,  of  every  description,  including  the  cost  of 
the  immense  squadrons  ■  that  have  been  called  into  existence 
from  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  to  the  first  of  November,  1864, 
are  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  million  six  hundred  and 
forty-seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  dollars  and 
thirty-five  cents. 

Your  favorable  consideration  is  invited  to  the  various 
recommendations  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  especially  in 
regard  to  a  navy-yard  and  suitable  establishment  for  the  con- 
struction and  repair  of  iron  vessels,  and  the  machinery  and 
armature  for  our  ships,  to  which  reference  Avas  made  iu  my  last 
annual  message.  Your  attention  is  also  invited  to  the  views 
expressed  in  the  report  in  relation  to  the  legislation  of  Congress 
at  its  last  session  in  respect  to  prize  on  our  inland  waters. 

I  cordially  concur  in  the  recommendation  of  the  Secretary 
as  to  the  propriety  of  creating  the  new  rank  of  vice-admiral  in 
our  naval  service. 

Your  attention  is  invited  to  the  report  of  the  Postmaster- 
General  for  a  detailed  account  of  the  operations  and  financial 
condition  of  the  Post-office  Department. 

The  postal  revenues  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1864, 
amounted  to  twelve  million  four  hundred  and  thirty-eight  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  fifty-three  dollars  and  seventy-eight 
cents,  and  the  expenditures  to  twelve  million  six  hundred  and 
forty-four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  eighty-six  dollars  and 
twenty  cents;  the  excess  of  expenditures  over,  receipts  being 
two  hundred  and  six  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-two  dollars 
and  forty-two  cents. 

The  views  presented  by  the  Postmaster-General  on  the  sub- 
ject of  special  grants  by  the  Government  in  aid  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  new  lines  of  ocean  mail  steam-ships,  and  the  policy 
he   recommends  for   the  development  of  increased  commercial 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  523 

intercourse  with  adjacent  and  neighboring  countries,  should 
receive  the  careful  consideration  of  Congress. 

It  is  of  noteworthy  interest  that  the  steady  expansion  of 
population,  improvement,  and  Governmental  institutions  over 
the  new  and  unoccupied  portions  of  our  country  have  scarcely 
been  checked,  much  less  impeded  or  destroyed  by  our  great 
Civil  War,  which,  at  first  glance,  would  seem  to  have  absorbed 
almost  the  entire  energies  of  the  Nation. 

The  organization  and  admission  of  the  State  of  Nevada  has 
been  completed,  in  conformity  with  law,  and  thus  our  excellent 
system  is  firmly  established  in  the  mountains  which  once 
seemed  a  barren  and  uninhabitable  waste  between  tlie  Atlantic 
States  and  those  which  have  grown  up  on  the  coast  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean. 

The  Territories  of  the  Union  are  generally  in  a  condition  of 
prosperity  and  growth.  Idaho  and  Montana,  by  reason  of  their 
great  distance  and  the  interruption  of  communication  with  them 
by  Indian  hostilities,  have  been  only  partially  organized  ;  but  it 
is  understood  that  these  difficulties  are  about  to  disappear,  which 
will  permit  their  governments,  like  those  of  the  others,  to  go 
into  speedy  and  full  operation. 

As  intimately  connected  with,  and  promotive  of  this  mate- 
rial growth  of  the  Nation  I  ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the 
valuable  information  and  important  recommendations  relating 
to  the  public  lands,  Indian  affairs,  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and 
mineral  discoveries  contained  in  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  which  is  herewith  transmitted,  and  which  report 
also  embraces  the  subjects  of  patents,  pensions,  and  other  topics 
of  public  interest  pertaining  to  his  Department. 

The  quantity  of  public  land  disposed  of  during  the  five 
quarters,  ending  on  the  30th  of  September  last,  was  four  mill- 
ion two  hundred  and  twenty-one  thousand  three  hundred  and 
forty-two  acres,  of  which  one  million  five  hundred  and  thirty- 
eight  thousand  six  hundred  and  fourteen  acres  were  entered 
under  the  Homestead  Law.  The  remainder  was  located  with 
military  land-warrants  agricultural  scrip  certified  to  States  for 
railroads,  and  sold  for  cash.  The  cash  received  from  sales  and 
location  fees  was  one  million  nineteen  thousand  four  hundred 
and  forty-six  dollars. 


524  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

The  income  from  sales  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1864,  was  six  hundred  and  seventy-eight  thousand  and 
seven  dollars  and  twenty-one  cents,  against  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six  thousand  and  seventy-seven  dollars  and  ninety-five 
cents  received  during  the  preceding  year.  The  aggregate  num- 
ber of  acres  surveyed  during  the  year  has  been  equal  to  the 
quantity  disposed  of;  and  there  is  open  to  settlement  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty-three  million  acres  of  surveyed  land. 

The  great  enterprise  of  connecting  the  Atlantic  with  the 
Pacific  States  by  railways  and  telegraph  lines  has  been  entered 
upon  with  a  vigor  that  gives  assurance  of  success,  notwithstand- 
ing the  embarrassments  arising  from  the  prevailing  high  prices 
of  materials  and  labor.  The  route  of  the  main  line  of  the  road 
has  been  definitely  located  for  one  hundred  miles  westward  from 
the  initial  point  at  Omaha  City,  Nebraska,  and  a  preliminary 
location  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  of  California  has  been  made 
from  Sacramento  eastward  to  the  great  bend  of  the  Truckee 
Eiver,  in  Nevada. 

Numerous  discoveries  of  gold,  silver,  and  cinnabar  mines 
have  been  added  to  the  many  heretofore  known,  and  the  country 
occupied  by  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
subordinate  ranges,  now  teems  with  enterprising  labor,  which  is 
richly  remunerative.  It  is  believed  that  the  product  of  the 
mines  of  precious  metals  in  that  region  has,  during  the  year, 
reached,  if  not  exceeded,  one  hundred  millions  in  value. 

It  was  recommended  in  my  last  annual  message  that  our 
Indian  sj'stem  be  remodeled.  Congress,  at  its  last  session, 
acting  upon  the  recommendation,  did  provide  for  reorganizing 
the  system  in  California,  and  it  is  believed  that  under  the  pres- 
ent organization  the  management  of  the  Indians  there  will  be 
attended  with  reasonable  success.  Much  yet  remains  to  be  done 
to  provide  for  the  proper  government  of  the  Indians  in  other 
parts  of  the  country  to  render  it  secure  for  the  advancing 
settler,  and  to  provide  for  the  welfare  of  the  Indian.  The  Secre- 
tary reiterates  his  recommendations,  and  to  them  the  attention 
of  Congress  is  invited. 

Tlie  liberal  provisions  made  by  Congress  for  paying  pensions 
to  invalid  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Republic,  and  to  the 
widows,  orphans,  and  dependent   mothers   of  those   who  have 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  525 

fallen  in  battle  or  died  of  disease  contracted,  or  of  wounds  re- 
ceived in  the  service  of  their  country,  have  been  diligently 
administered.  There  have  been  added  to  the  pension  rolls 
during  the  year  ending  the  30th  day  of  June  last,  the  names 
of  sixteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy  invalid  soldiers, 
and  of  two  hundred  and  seventy-one  disabled  seamen,  making 
the  present  number  of  army  invalid  pensioners,  twenty-two 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-seven,  and  of  navy  in- 
valid pensioners,  seven  hundred  and  twelve.  Of  widows, 
orphans,  and  mothers,  twenty-two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
ninety-eight  have  been  placed  on  the  army  pension  rolls,  and 
two  hundred  and  forty-eight  on  the  navy  rolls.  The  present 
number  of  army  pensioners  of  this  class  is  twenty-five  thousand 
four  hundred  and  thirty-three,  and  of  navy  pensioners,  seven 
hundred  and  ninety-three.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  the 
number  of  Revolutionary  pensioners  was  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  thirty.  Only  twelve  of  them  Avere  soldiers,  of 
whom  seven  have  since  died.  The  remainder  are  those  who, 
under  the  law,  receive  pensions  because  of  relationship  to  Eevo- 
Intionary  soldiers.  During  the  year  ending  the  30th  of  June, 
1864,  four  million  five  hundred  and  four  thousand  six  hundred 
and  sixteen  dollars  and  ninety-two  cents  have  been  paid  to 
pensioners  of  all  classes. 

I  cheerfully  commend  to  your  continued  patronage  the 
benevolent  institutions  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  which  have 
hitherto  been  established  or  fostered  by  Congress,  and  respect- 
fully refer  for  information  concerning  them,  and  in  relation  to 
the  Washington  Aqueduct,  the  Capitol,  and  other  matters  of 
local  interest,  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary. 

The  Agricultural  Department,  under  the  supervision  of  its 
present  energetic  and  faithful  head,  is  rapidly  commending 
itself  to  the  great  and  vital  interest  it  was  created  to  advance. 
It  is  peculiarly  the  people's  Department,  in  which  they  feel 
more  directly  concerned  than  in  any  other.  I  commend  it  to 
the  continued  attention  and  fostering  care  of  Congress. 

The  war  continues.  Since  the  last  annual  message  all  the 
important  lines  and  positions  then  occupied  by  our  forces  have 
been  maintained,  and  our  armies  have  steadily  advanced,  thus 
liberating  the  regions   left    in  the  rear,  so   that  Missouri,  Ken- 


626  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

tucky,  Tennessee,    and   parts  of  other  States  have   again   pro- 
duced reasonably  fair  crops. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  military  operations  of 
the  year  is  General  Sherman's  attempted  march  of  three  hun- 
dred miles  directly  through  the  insurgent  region.  It  tends  to 
show  a  great  increase  of  our  relative  strength,  that  our  Gen- 
eral-in-Chief should  feel  able  to  confront  and  hold  iu  check 
every  active  force  of  the  enemy,  and  yet  to  detach  a  well- 
appointed,  large  army  to  move  on  such  an  expedition.  The 
result  riot  yet  being  known,  conjecture  in  regard  to  it  is  not 
here  indulged. 

Important  movements  have  also  occurred  during  the  year 
to  the  effect  of  molding  society  for  durability  iu  the  Union  ; 
although  short  of  complete  success,  it  is  so  much  in  the  right 
direction,  that  twelve  thousand  citizens  in  each  of  the  States  of 
Arkansas  and  Louisiana  have  organized  loyal  State  govern- 
ments with  free  constitutions,  and  are  earnestly  struggling  to 
maintain  and  administer  them.  The  rnoveraent  iu  the  same 
direction,  more  extensive  though  less  definite,  iu  Missouri,  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee,  should  not  be  overlooked.  But  !Mary- 
land  presents  the  example  of  complete  success.  Maryland  is 
secure  to  liberty  and  union  for  all  the  future.  The  genius  of 
rebellion  Avill  no  more  claim  Maryland.  Like  another  foul 
spirit,  being  driven  out,  it  may  seek  to  tear  her,  but  it  will  rule 
her  no  more. 

At  the  last  session  of  Congress,  a  proposed  amendment  of 
the  Constitution  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  United 
States,  passed  the  Senate,  but  failed  for  lack  of  the  requisite 
two-thirds  vote  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Although  the 
present  is  the  same  Congress,  and  without  questioning  the 
■wisdom  or  patriotism  of  those  who  stood  in  opposition,  I  venture 
to  recommend  the  consideration  and  passage  of  the  measure  at 
the  present  session. 

Of  course  the  abstract  question  is  not  changed,  but  an  inter- 
■  vening  election  shows  almost  certainly  that  the  next  Congress 
will  pass  the  measure 'if  this  does  not.  Hence  there  is  only  a 
question  of  time  as  to  when  the  proposed  amendment  will  go  to 
the  States  for  their  action,  and  as  it  is  to  go  at  all  events,  may 
we  not  agree  that  the  sooner  the  better.     It  is  not  claimed  that 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  527 

the  election  has  imposed  a  duty  on  members  to  change  their 
views  or  their  votes  any  further  than  as  an  additional  element 
to  be  considered.  Their  judgment  may  be  affected  by  it.  It 
is  the  voice  of  the  people  now  for  the  first  time  heard  upon  the 
question.  In  a  great  national  crisis  like  ours,  unanimity  of 
action  among  those  seeking  a  common  end  is  very  desirable, 
almost  indispensable,  and  yet  no  approach  to  such  unanimity  is 
attainable  unless  some  deference  shall  be  paid  to  the  will  of 
the  majority,  simply  because  it  is  the  will  of  the  majority.  In 
this  case  the  common  end  is  the  maintenance  of  the  Union, 
and  among  the  means  to  secure  that  end,  such  will,  through 
the  election,  is  most  clearly  declared  in  favor  of  such  Constitu- 
tional amendment. 

The  most  reliable  indication  of  public  purpose  in  this 
country  is  derived  through  our  popular  elections.  Judging  by 
the  recent  canvass  and  its  result,  tlie  purpose  of  the  people, 
within  the  loyal  States,  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Union, 
was  never  more  firm  nor  more  nearly  unanimous  than  now. 

The  extraordinary  calmness  and  good  order  with  which  the 
millions  of  voters  met  and  mingled  at  the  polls,  give  strong  as- 
surance of  this.  Not  only  those  who  supported  the  "Union 
ticket"  (so-called),  but  a  great  majority  of  the  opposing  party 
also  may  be  fairly  claimed  to  entertain  and  to  be  actuated  by. 
the  same  purpose.  It  is  an  unanswerable  argument  to  this 
effect  that  no  candidate  for  any  oflSce  whatever,  high  or  low, 
has  ventured  to  seek  votes  on  the  avowal  that  he  was  for  giving 
up  the  Union. 

There  has  been  much  heated  controversy  as  to  the  proper 
means  and  best  mode  of  advancing  the  Union  cause,  but  in  the 
distinct  issue  of  Union  or  no  Union,  the  politicians  have  shown 
their  instinctive  knowledge  that  there  is  no  diversity  among 
the  people.  In  affording  the  people  a  fair  opportunity  of  show- 
ing one  to  another,  and  to  the  world,  this  firmness  and  una- 
nimity of  purpose,  the  election  has  been  of  vast  value  to  the 
national  cause. 

The  election  has  exhibited  another  fact  not  less  valuable  to 
be  known ;  the  fact  that  we  do  not  approach  exhaustion  in  the 
most  important  branch  of  the  national  resources,  that  of  living 
men.     While  it  is   melancholy  to  reflect  that  the  war  has  filled 


528  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

so  many  graves  and  carried  mourning  to  so  many  hearts,  it  is 
some  relief  to  know  that,  compared  with  the  surviving,  the 
fallen  have  been  so  few.  While  corps  and  divisions,  and 
brigades  and  regiments,  have  formed  and  fought,  and  dwindled 
and  gone  out  of  existence,  a  great  majority  of  the  men  who 
composed  them  are  still  living.  The  same  is  true  of  the  naval 
service.  The  election  returns  prove  this.  So  many  voters 
could  not  else  be  found.  The  States  regularly  holding  elec- 
tions, both  now  and  four  years  ago — to  wit,  Calilbrnia,  Con- 
necticut, Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Maine, 
Maryland,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  New 
Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  West  Virginia,  and  Wisconsin — 
cast  three  million  nine  hundred  and  eighty-two  thousand  and 
eleven  votes  now  against  three  million  eight  hundred  and 
seventy  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  cast  then,  show- 
ins  an  affg-resate  now  of  thirty-three  million  nine  hundred 
and  eighty-two  thousand  and  eleven,  to  which  is  to  be  added, 
thirty-three  thousand  seven  hundred  and  sixty-two  cast  now  in 
the  new  States  of  Kansas  and  Nevada,  which  did  not  vote  in 
1860.  Thus  swelling  the  aggregate  to  four  million  fifteen 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-three,  and  the  net  increase 
during  the  three  years  and  a  half  of  war,  to  one  hundred  and 
forty-five  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty-one. 

To  this,  again,  should  be  added  the  number  of  all  soldiers 
in  the  field  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey, 
Delaware,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  California,  who,  by  the  laws  of 
those  States,  could  not  vote  away  from  their  homes,  and  which 
number  can  not  be  less  than  ninety  thousand.  Nor  yet  is  this 
all.  The  number  in  organized  Territories  is  triple  now  what  it 
was  four  years  ago,  while  thousands,  white  and  black,  join  us 
as  the  national  arms  press  back  the  insurgent  lines.  So  much 
is  shown  affirmatively  and  negatively  by  the  election. 

It  is  not  material  to  inquire  how  the  increase  has  been  pro- 
duced, or  to  show  that  it  would  have  been  greater  but  for  the 
war,  which  is  probably  true ;  the  important  fact  remains  demon- 
strated that  Ave  have  more  men  now  than  we  had  when  the  war 
began ;  that  we  are  not  exhausted,  nor  in  process  of  exhaus- 
tion; that  we  are  gaining  strength,  and  may,  if  need  be,  main- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  529 

tain  the  contest  indefinitely.  This  as  to  men.  Natural  re- 
sources are  now  more  complete  and  abundant  than  ever.  The 
national  resources,  then,  are  unexhausted,  and,  we  believe,  in- 
exhaustible. The  public  purpose  to  re-estaUish  and  maintain 
the  national  authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe,  un- 
changeable. The  manner  of  continuing  the  effort  remains 
to  choose. 

On  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  accessible,  it 
seems  to  me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation  with  the  insurgent 
leader  could  result  in  any  good.  He  would  accept  of  nothing 
short  of  the  severance  of  the  Union.  His  declarations  to  this 
effect  are  explicit  and  oft-repeated.  He  does  not  attempt  to 
deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no  excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  We 
can  not  voluntarily  yield  it.  Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is 
distinct,  simple,  and  inflexible.  It  is  an  issue  which  can  only 
be  tried  by  war,  and  decided  by  victory.  If  we  yield  we  are 
beaten;  if  the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten;  either 
way  it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  following  war.  What 
is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads  the  insurgent  cause,  is  not 
necessarily  true  of  those  who  follow.  Although  he  can  not 
reaccept  the  Union,  they  can.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  al- 
ready desire  peace  and  reunion.  The  number  of  such  may  in- 
crease. They  can  at  any  moment  have  peace  simply  by  laying 
doAvn  their  arms,  and  submitting  to  the  national  authority 
under  the  Constitution.  After  so  much,  the  Government  could 
not,  if  it  would,  maintain  war  against  them.  The  loyal  people 
would  not  sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions  should  remain,  we 
would  adjust  them  by  the  peaceful  means  of  legislation,  courts, 
and  votes. 

Operating  only  in  Constitutional  and  lawful  channels,  some 
certain  and  other  possible  questions  are  and  would  be  beyond 
the  Executive  power  to  adjust;  for  instance,  the  admission  of 
members  into  Congress,  and  whatever  might  require  the  ap- 
propriation of  money.  The  Executive  power  itself  would  be 
really  diminished  by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons  and 
remissions  of  forfeiture,  however,  would  still  be  within  Execu- 
tive control.  In  what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would  be 
exercised,  can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the  past.  A  year  ago 
general  pardon   and   amnesty  upon   specified  terms  were  offered 

34— Q 


530  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  all  except  certain  designated  classes,  and  it  was  at  the  same 
time  made  known  that  the  excepted  classes  were  still  within 
contemplation  of  special  clemency.  During  the  year  many 
availed  themselves  of  the  general  provision,  and  many  more 
would,  only  that  the  signs  of  bad  faith  in  some  led  to  such 
precautionaiy  measures  as  rendered  the  practical  process  less 
easy  and  certain.  During  the  same  time,  also,  special  pardons 
have  been  granted  to  individuals  of  excepted  classes,  and  no 
voluntary  application  has  been  denied.  Thus,  practically,  the 
door  has  been  for  a  full  year  open  to  all,  except  such  as  were 
not  in  condition  to  make  free  choice ;  that  is,  such  as  were  in 
custody  or  under  constraint.  It  is  still  so  open  to  all,  but  the 
time  may  come,  probably  will  come,  when  public  duty  shall 
demand  that  it  be  closed,  and  that  in  lieu  more  rigorous  meas- 
ures than  heretofore  shall  be  adopted. 

In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance  to  the 
national  autJiority,  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents,  as  the  only 
indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war  on  the  part  of  the 
Government,  I  retract  nothing  heretofore  said  as  to  slavery. 
I  repeat  the  declaration  made  a  year  ago,  that,  while  I  remain 
in  my  present  position,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Nor  shall  I  return  to  slavery 
any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  Proclamation,  or 
by  the  acts  of  Congress. 

If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means,  make  it 
an  Executive  duty  to  re-enslave  such  persons,  another,  and  not 
I,  must  be  their  instrument  to  perform  it.  In  stating  a  single 
condition  of  peace,  I  mean  simply  to  say,  that  the  war  will 
cease  on  the  part  of  the  Government  whenever  it  shall  have 
ceased  on  the  part  of  those  who  began  it. 

During  this  short  session,  closing  on  the  3d  of 
March,  1865,  the  following  more  important  acts  were 
passed  and  became  laws  :  To  establish  the  office  of 
Vice-Admiral  in  the  Navy,  ranking  with  Lieutenant- 
General  in  the  Army  ;  to  require  lawyers  admitted 
to  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  circuit 
and  district  courts  of  the  United  States  to  take  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  531 

oath  of  allegiance,  approved  in  1862;  an  act  to  pre- 
vent military  and  naval  officers  interfering  in  elec- 
tions except  to  preserve  the  peace ;  ,'ind  to  establish 
the  "  Freedmen's  Bureau."  But  the  only  really  im- 
portant act  of  this  session  was  that  providing  for  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  forbidding  slavery  in 
the  United  States. 

At  an  early  date  in  the  previous  session  this 
matter  had  been  brought  before  Congress,  and  fully 
discussed  in  all  its  bearings  with  the  usual  rancor, 
extravagance,  and  folly  which  had  been  the  insepara- 
ble accompaniment  of  all  attempts  in  Congress  to 
handle  the  subject  of  slavery.  There  was  the  usual 
amount  of  talk  about  God  and  Canaan,  and  slavery 
being  the  Heaven-decreed  and  normal  position  of  the 
colored  race ;  and  Mr.  Hendricks,  of  Indiana,  rean- 
nounced  the  wonderful  doctrine  that  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
moral  question  of  human  slavery.  However,  the  act 
providing  for  the  amendment  had  but  six  dissenting 
votes  in  the  Senate.  In  the  House  it  failed  of  get- 
ting  the   necessary  two-thirds  A^ote. 

Early  in  the  present  session,  according  to  the 
recommendation  of  the  President's  Message,  a  motion 
was  made  to  reconsider  the  action  of -the  House  in 
the  previous  summer,  and  again  the  discussion  of  the 
almost  dead  "institution"  began.  Nor  was  it  much 
less  virulent  than  it  had  been  before  secession,  so- 
called,  took  away  the  hot-headed  defenders  of  slavery 
from  the  far  South.  The  advocates  of  the  institu- 
tion wer^e  not  wanting   in    Congress,  the    North    fur- 


532  LIFE  AND  TEVIES  OF 

nishing  the  greater  part  of  them.  Of  one  of  these 
Thaddeus  Stevens  said :  "  When  we  all  molder  in 
the  dust ;  he  may  have  his  epitaph  written,  if  it  be 
truly  written,  Here  rests  the  ablest  and  most  perti- 
nncious  defender  of  slavery,  and  opponent  of  liberty." 

Finally  on  the  last  day  of  January,  1865,  the 
question  on  reconsidering  the  former  action  of  the 
House  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and 
twelve  yeas  against  fifty-seven  nays.  And  then  the 
joint  resolution  of  the  former  session,  providing  for 
an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  doing  away  with 
slavery,  was  passed  by  one  hundred  and  nineteen 
yeas  against  fifty-six  nays,  D.  W.  Voorhees,  of  In- 
diana, and  seven  others  not  voting.  A  majority  of 
the  border  State  Representatives  voted  for  the  meas- 
ure, as  did  a  number  of  Democrats  from  various 
parts  of  the  Union,  but  all  the  nays  and  the  eight 
not  voting  w^ei:e  Democrats, 

Amidst  the  wildest  demonstrations  of  joy  on  the 
part  of  the  friends  of  the  measure,  Ebon  C.  Ingersoll, 
of  Illinois,  said  :  "  In  honor  of  this  immortal  and  sub- 
lime event,  I  move  that  the  House  adjourn."  And 
the  House  did  adjourn,  ringing  with  the  triumphant 
shouts  of  the  friends  of  liberty.  Thus  Congress  had 
finished  its  share  in  the  overthrow  of  human  slavery, 
the  grand  achievement  of  the  age.  And  in  good  time 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  States  sanctioned  the 
emancipation  acts  of  the  Administration,  and  this 
crowning  act  of  Congress,  the  amendment  forever 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  United  States  becoming  a 
part  of  the  Constitution. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  533 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

WAR    OF   THE    REBELLION— OVERTURES   FOR    PEACE- 
MR.  BLAIR  AND  JEFFERSON  DAVIS— MR.  LIN- 
COLN'S SECOND  INAUGURAL. 

LATE  in  1864  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  F.  P.  Blair,  Sen., 
a  permit  to  pass  through  the  army  to  go  to 
Richmond.  This  old  political  busybody  was  im- 
pressed with  the  notion  that  he  was  the  possessor 
of  a  plan  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union  without 
further  bloodshed.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  full  confidence 
in  Mr.  Blair's  patriotism,  but  would  not  even  listen 
to  his  views  touching  his  visit  to  Jefferson  Davis. 
The  President  had  announced  in  his  last  annual 
message  the  only  terms  on  which  he  would  ever  con- 
sent to  a  suspension  of  the  war — that  the  rebels 
should  lay  down  their  arms  and  return  to  their 
allegiance  to  the  Government.  This  had  always 
been  Mr.  Lincoln's  position,  and  few  persons  knew 
it  better  than  Francis  P.  Blair,  Sen.  Early  in  Janu- 
ary Mr.  Blair  succeeded  in  reaching  Richmond,  and 
holding  a  long  conversation  with  the  rebel  executive. 
In  his  account  of  the  interview  Mr.  Davis  treats  the 
whole  matter  in  the  light  of  a  very  grave  condescen- 
sion on  his  part  toward  this  old  political  associate. 
But  Mr.  BLiir  made  amends,  to  some  extent,  by  his 
good  conduct,  his  earnestness  as  to  some  preliminary 


534  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

steps  for  peace,  and  his  kind  and  flattering  expres- 
sions touching  his  own  Southern  blood,  and  so  on. 
His  proposition  was  that  mihtary  hostiUties  should 
be  suspended  on  the  simple  understanding,  and 
nothing  more,  that  the  attention  of  the  armies  and 
the  whole  people  should  be  turned  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine  "  against  France  in 
Mexico.  This  being  done,  in  the  meantime,  Mr. 
Blair  seemed  to  believe  the  wounds  of  the  domestic 
war  would  somehow  be  healed,  and  the  Union  re- 
stored. Although  his  judgment  was  at  fault  in  this 
whole  business,  there  can  be  no  question  about  Mr. 
Blair's  good  intentions  and  patriotism.  He  was  quite 
particular  in  assuring  Mr.  Davis  that  he  was  acting 
entirely  on  his  own  responsibility,  while  he  took 
equal  pains  to  urge  the  belief  that  the  President 
would  treat  his  plan  with  favor. 

Davis  dismissed  him  with  this  letter  to  himself: — 

"  Richmond,  Virginia,  January  12,  1865. 
"  F.  P.  Blair,  Esq.  :— 

"  Sir, — I  have  deemed  it  proper,  and  probably  desir- 
able to  you,  to  give  you  in  this  form  the  substance  of 
remarks  made  by  me,  to  be  repeated  by  you  to  President 
Lincoln,  etc. 

"  I  have  no  disposition  to  find,  obstacles  in  forms,  and 
am  willing  now,  as  heretofore,  to  enter  into  negotiations 
for  the  restoration  of  peace ;  am  ready  to  send  a  commis- 
sion whenever  I  have  reason  to  suppose  it  will  be  received, 
or  to  receive  a  commission,  if  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment shall  choose  to  send  one. 

"That,  notwithstanding  the  rejection  of  our  former 
oifers,  I  would,  if  you  could  promise  that  a  commissioner, 
minister,  or  agent  would   be  received,  appoint  one  imme- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  535 

diately,  and  renew  the  effort  to  enter  Into  conference  with 
a  view  to  secure  peace  to  the  two  countries. 

"  Yours,  etc.,  Jefferson  Davis." 

The  true  character  of  this  artful  letter  is  revealed 
in  the  two  last  words,  Uvo  countries.  Two  countries 
the  Administration  and  the  loyal  North  could  never 
acknowledge,  and  that  was  well  known. 

With  almost  inexhaustible  resources,  and  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  people  rising  as  it  now  became  more 
apparent  daily  that  the  Rebellion  was  speedily  falling 
to  pieces,  a  mere  fantasy  could  liave  led  any  sane 
man  to  suppose  any  terms  but  unconditional  surren- 
der would  be  accepted  from  the  rebels.  And  so  Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  in  answer  to  this  letter  designed  for 
the  eye  of  the  rebel  chief: — 

"  Washington,  January  18,  1865. 
"  F.  P.  Blair,  Esq.:— 

Sir, — You  having  shown  me  Mr.  Davis's  letter  to  you 
of  the  12th  inst.,  you  may  say  to  him  that  I  have  con- 
stantly been,  am  now,  and  shall  continue  ready  to  receive 
any  agent  whom  he,  or  any  other  influential  person  now 
resisting  the  national  authority,  may  informally  send  to 
me  with  a  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people  of  our  one 
common  country.  Yours,  etc.,  A.  Lincoln." 

With  this  Mr.  Blair  again  visited  Richmond,  and 
in  his  interview  with  Jefferson  Davis,  took  occasion 
to  call  his  attention  to  the  expression  our  one  common 
country  in  the  President's  letter,  and  the  object  of  its 
use.  Mr.  Davis  was  then  frank  enough  to  say  that 
he  recognized  its  purpose  of  counteracting  the  words 
two  countries  in  his  letter,     Mr.  Blair  got  among  his 


536  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

old  friends  while  on  this  visit  to  Richmond,  and  lost 
no  opportunity  to  assure  them  of  the  hopelessness 
of  their  cause.  In  his  strange  book  on  the  "  Rise 
and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Government,"  Mr.  Davis 
says  : — 

"  Mr.  Blair  had  many  acquaintances  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Confederate  Congress  ;  and  all  those  of  the 
class,  who,  of  old,  fled  to  the  cave  of  Adullam,  'gathered 
themselves  unto  him.'" 

Davis  now  consulted  with  Alexander  H.  Stephens 
and  others,  and  concluded  to  send  commissioners  to 
treat  with  President  Lincoln,  in  (he  vain  hope  that 
he  might  be  induced  to  take  up  with  Mr.  Blair's 
proposition  as  to  the  enforcement  of  "  The  Monroe 
Doctrine,"  which  in  some  way  would  in  the  end  turn 
to  the  great  advantage  of  the  Southern  cause. 

In  a  letter  to  Charles  Francis  Adams  Mr.  Seward 
gave  this  account  of  the  meeting  and  its  result : — 

"  Department  of  State,  Washington  City,  "t 

"  February  7,  1865.        / 

"Sm, — It  is  a  truism  that  in  times  of  peace  there  are 
always  instigators  of  war.  So  soon  as  war  begins  there  are  citi- 
zens who  impatiently  demand  negotiations  for  peace.  The 
advocates  of  war,  after  an  agitation,  longer  or  shorter,  generally 
gain  their  fearful  end,  though  the  war  declared  is  not  uufre- 
quently  unnecessary  and  unwise.  So  peace  agitators  in  time 
of  war  ultimately  bring  about  an  abandonment  of  the  conflict, 
sometimes  without  securing  the  advantages  which  were  origi- 
nally expected  from  the  conflict. 

"The  agitators  for  war  in  time  of  peace,  and  for  peace  in 
time  of  war,  are  not  necessarily,  or  perhaps  ordinarily,  unpa- 
triotic in  their  purposes  or  motives.  Results  alone  determine 
whether  they  are  wise  or  unwise.  The  treaty  of  peace  concluded 
at  Gudalupe-Hidalgo,   was    secured  by  an  irregular  negotiator 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  537 

uuder  tlie  ban  of  the  Government.  Some  of  the  efforts  which 
have  been  made  to  bring  about  negotiations,  with  a  view  to 
end  our  Civil  War,  are  known  to  the  whole  world,  because  they 
have  employed  foreign  as  well  as  domestic  agents.  Others, 
Avith  whom  you  have  had  to  deal  confidentially,  are  known  to 
yourself,  although  they  have  not  publicly  transpired.  Other 
efforts  have  occurred  here  which  are  known  only  to  the  persons 
actually  moving  in  them  and  to  this  Government.  I  am  now 
to  give,  for  your  information,  an  account  of  an  affair  of  the 
same  general  character,  which  recently  received  much  attention 
here,  and  which,  doubtless,  will  excite  inquiry  abroad, 

"A  few  days  ago  Francis  P.  Blair,  Esq.,  of  Maryland,  ob- 
tained from  the  President  a  simple  leave  to  pass  through  our 
military  lines  without  definite  views  known  to  the  Government. 
Mr.  Blair  visited  Richmond,  and  on  his  return  he  showed  to 
the  President  a  letter  which  Jefferson  Davis  had  written  to  Mr. 
Blair,  in  which  Davis  wrote  that  Mr.  Blair  was  at  liberty  to 
say  to  President  Lincoln  that  Davis  was  now,  as  he  always 
had  been,  willing  to  send  commissioners  if  assured  they  would 
be  received,  or  to  receive  any  that  should  be  sent ;  that  he  was 
not  disposed  to  find  obstacles  in  forms.  He  would  send  com- 
missioners to  confer  with  the  President  with  a  view  to  a  restora- 
tion of  peace  between  the  two  countries  if  he  could  be  assured 
they  would  be  received.  The  President  thereupon,  on  the  18th 
of  January,  addressed  a  note  to  Mr.  Blair,  in  which  the  Presi- 
dent, after  acknowledging  that  he  had  read  the  note  of  Mr. 
Davis,  said  that  he  was,  is,  and  always  should  be,  willing  to 
receive  any  agents  that  Mr.  Davis  or  any  other  influential  per- 
son, now  actually  resisting  the  authority  of  the  Government, 
might  send  to  confer  informally  with  the  President,  with  a  view 
to  the  restoration  of  peace  to  the  people  of  our  one  common 
country.  Mr.  Blair  visited  Richmond  with  this  letter,  and  then 
again  came  back  to  Washington. 

"On  the  29th  ultimo  we  were  advised  from  the  camp  of 
Lieuteuant-General  Grant  that  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  R.  M. 
T.  Hunter,  and  John  A.  Campbell  were  applying  for  leave  to 
pass  through  the  lines  to  Washington,  as  peace  commissioners, 
to  confer  with  the  President.  They  were  permitted  by  the 
Lieutenant-General  to  come  to  his  head-quarters,  to  await  there 


638  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  decision  of  the  President.     Major  Eckert  was  sent  down  to 
meet    the    party  from    Richmond    at    General   Grant's    head- 
quarters.    The  Major  was  directed  to  deliver  to  them   a   copy 
of  the  President's  letter  to   Mr.  Blair,  with   a   note    to   be  ad- 
dressed to  them  aud  signed  by  the  Major,  in  which   they  were 
directly  informed   that  if  they  should   be  allowed  to   pass  our 
lines  they  would  be  understood  as  coming  for  an   informal  con- 
ference upon  the  basis  of  the  aforenamed  letter  of  the  18th  of 
January  to  Mr.  Blair.     If  they  should   express  their  assent  to 
this  condition  in   writing,  then   Major   Eckert   was   directed  to 
give    them   safe    conduct   to   Fortress   Monroe,  Avhere  a  person 
coming  from  the  President  would  meet  them.     It  being  thought 
probable,  from  a  report  of  their   conversation  with   Lieutenant- 
General  Grant,  that  the  Richmond  party  would,  in  the  manner 
prescribed,  accept   the   condition    mentioned,  the   Secretary  of 
State  was  charged  by  the  President  with  the  duty  of  represent- 
ing this  Government  in  the  expected  informal  conference.     The 
Secretary  arrived  at  Fortress  Monroe  in  the  night  of  the  1st  day 
of  February.     Major  Eckert  met  him  in  the  morning  of  the  2d 
of  February,  with   the  information  that  the   persons  who   had 
come  from  Richmond  had  not  accepted  in  writing  the  condition 
upon  which  he  was  allowed  to  give  them   conduct  to  Fortress 
Monroe.     The  Major  had  given  the  same  information  by  tele- 
graph to  the  President  at  Washington.     On  receiving  this  in- 
formation the  President  prepared  a  telegram  directing  the  Secre- 
tary to  return   to   Washington.     The  Secretary  was  preparing 
at  the  same  moment  to  so  return,  without  waiting   for  instruc- 
tions   from   the   President.     But   at   this  juncture  Lieutenant- 
General  Grant  telegraphed  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  as  well  as 
to  the  Secretary  of  State,  that  the  party  from   Richmond  had 
reconsidered  and  accepted  the  conditions  tendered  them  through 
Major  Eckert ;  and  General  Grant  urgently  advised   the  Presi- 
dent to  confer   in  person    with  the  Richmond  party.     Under 
these  circumstances,  the  Secretary,  by  the  President's  direction, 
remained  at  Fortress  Monroe,  and    the   President  joined  him 
there  on    the    night   of  the  2d    of  February.     The  Richmond 
party  was  brought   down  the  James  River  in  a  United  States 
steam      transport    during    the    day,    and    the    transport    was 
anchored  in  Hampton  Roads. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  539 

"On  the  morning  of  the  3cl,  the  President,  attended  by  the 
Secretary,  received  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell  on 
board  the  United  States  steam  transport  River  Queen,  in  Hamp- 
ton Roads.  The  conference  was  altogether  informal.  There 
"was  no  attendance  of  secretaries,  clerks,  or  other  witnesses. 
Nothing  was  written  or  read.  The  conversation,  although 
earnest  and  free,  was  calm,  and  courteous,  and  kind  on  both 
sides.  The  Richmond  party  approached  the  discussion  rather 
indirectly,  and  at  no  time  did  they  either  make  categorical  de- 
mauds,  or  tender  f(5rrmal  stipulations  or  absolute  refusals. 
Nevertheless,  during  the  conference,  which  lasted  four  hours, 
the  several  points  at  issue  between  the  Government  and  the 
insurgents  were  distinctly  raised,  and  discussed  fully,  intelli- 
gently, and  in  an  amicable  spirit.  What  the  insurgent  party 
seemed  chiefly  to  favor  was  a  postponement  of  the  question  of 
separation,  upon  which  the  war  is  waged,  and  a  mutual  direc- 
tion of  efforts  of  the  Government,  as  well  as  those  of  the  in- 
surgents, to  some  extrinsic  policy  or  scheme  for  a  season,  during 
which  passions  might  be  expected  to  subside,  and  the  armies 
be  reduced,  and  trade  and  intercourse  between  the  people  of 
both  sections  resumed.  It  was  suggested  by  them  that  through 
such  postponement  we  might  now  have  immediate  peace,  with 
some  not  very  certain  prospect  of  an  ultimate  satisfactory  ad- 
justment of  political  relations  between  this  Government  and 
the  States,  section,  and  people  now  engaged  in  conflict  with  it. 

"The  suggestion,  though  deliberately  considered,  was  never- 
theless regarded  by  the  President  as  one  of  armistice  or  truce, 
and  he  announced  that  we  can  agree  to  no  cessation  or  suspen- 
sion of  hostilities  except  on  the  basis  of  the  disbandment  of 
the  insurgent  forces  and  the  restoration  of  the  national  author- 
ity throughout  all  the  States  in  the  Union.  Collaterally,  and 
in  subordination  to  the  proposition  which  was  thus  announced, 
the  anti-slavery  policy  of  the  United  States  was  reviewed  in  all 
its  bearings,  and  the  President  announced  that  he  must  not  be 
expected  to  depart  from  the  positions  he  had  heretofore  as- 
sumed in  his  Proclamation  of  Emancijiation  and  other  docu- 
ments, as  these  positions  were  reiterated  in  his  last  annual 
message.  It  was  further  declared  by  the  President  that  the 
complete  restoration  of  the  national  authority  everywhere  was 


540  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

an  indispensable  condition  of  any  assent  on  our  part  to  what- 
ever form  of  peace  might  be  proposed.  The  President  assured 
the  other  party  that  while  he  must  adhere  to  these  positions, 
he  would  be  prepared,  so  far  as  power  is  lodged  with  the 
Executive,  to  exercise  liberality.  Its  power,  however,  is 
limited  by  the  Constitution ;  and  when  peace  shall  be  made, 
Congress  must  necessarily  act  in  regard  to  appropriations  of 
money  and  to  the  admission  of  representatives  from  the  insur- 
rectionary States.  The  Richmond  party  were  then  informed 
that  Congress  had,  on  the  31st  ultimo,  adopted,  by  a  Constitu- 
tional majority,  a  joint  resolution  submitting  to  the  several 
States  the  proposition  to  abolish  slavery  throughout  the  Union ; 
and  that  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  it  will  be  soon 
accepted  by  three-fourths  of  the  States,  so  as  to  become  a  part 
of  the  national  organic  law. 

"The  conference  came  to  an  end,  by  mutual  acquiescence, 
without  producing  any  agreement  of  views  upon  the  several 
matters  discussed,  or  any  of  them.  Nevertheless,  it  is  perhaps 
of  some  importance  that  we  have  been  able  to  submit  our 
opinions  and  views  directly  to  prominent  insurgents,  and  to 
hear  them  in  answer,  in  a  courteous  and  not  unfriendly 
manner.  I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

**  William  H.  Sewaed." 

This  conference  lasted  for  several  hours,  the  Pres- 
ident and  Mv.  Stephens  doing  most  of  the  talking. 
Mr.  Stephens  at  the  outset  brought  up  the  common 
interest  on  which  the  attention  of  the  country  might 
he  directed  for  a  time,  "  The  Monroe  Doctrine,"  when 
the  President  very  positively  informed  them  that  he 
had  given  no  word  of  countenance  or  sn notion  to  Mr. 
Blair's  scheme  about  sending  an  army  to  Mexico,  and 
assured  them  that  no  hope  must  be  entertained  as  to 
his  assenting  to  the  semblance,  e\en  of  an  armistice, 
without  the  condition  that  it  should  be  on  the  ground 
of  the  restoration  of  the  Union. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  541 

On  this  point  the  rebel  agents  had  no  authority  to 
negotiate;  and  only  hoped  in  an  artful  scheme  to 
take  advantage  of  the  Government  in  a  way  that 
might  lead  to  their  final  independence.  Mr.  Ste- 
phens says  in  his  wonderful  book,  "  Constitutional  View 
of  the  War  between  the  States,"  that  neither  the 
commissioners  nor  the  rebel  authorities  had  the  re- 
motest idea  of  sending  any  of  the  rebel  army  to  aid 
in  expelling  the  French  from  Mexico.  It  could  not 
be  spared.  Before  this  "peace  conference"  ended, 
Mr.  Stephens  suggested  to  the  President  that  their 
meeting  might  not  be  wholly  fruitless,  if  they  could 
arrange  some  satisfactory  terms  for  a  general  ex- 
change. And  this  was  very  soon  afterwards  done 
under  the  direction  of  General  Grant,  to  the  great 
gratification  of  the  whole  country. 

Two  other  good  results  w^ere  the  immediate  out- 
come of  this  conference.  It  convinced  those  at  the 
North,  who  would  be  convinced,  that  the  rebel  lead- 
ers would  submit  to  no  terms  which  did  not  imply 
their  independence  as  a  nation,  and  hence  that  the 
Union  could  only  be  restored  and  maintained  by  de- 
stroying the  military  power  of  the  Rebellion.  It 
also  served  to  divide  further  the  already  utterly  hope- 
less and  divided  rebels.  A  few  days  after  his  return 
to  Richmond,  Alexander  H.  Stephens  gave  up  the 
cause  as  lost,  and  sought  his  hom.e  in  Georgia.  But 
not  so  with  Jefferson  Davis.  He  foolishly  persisted 
in  appearing  to  believe  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  com- 
mitted himself  to  Mr.  Blair's  scheme  for  peace,  and 
had  treacherously  changed  his  disposition  on  hearing 


542  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  the  fall  of  Fort  Fisher,  the  last  possible  gateway 
of  the  Rebellion  to  British  supplies.  Public  meet- 
ings were  called  in  Richmond,  and  every  means  taken 
to  inflame  and  prolong  the  spirit  of  opposition  and 
war.  In  one  of  these  Jefferson  DaA^s  said  in  a  fiery 
speech:  "I  would  be  willing  to  yield  up  everything' 
I  have  on  earth,  and  if  it  were  possible,  would  sac- 
rifice my  life  a  thousand  times,  before  I  would  suc- 
cumb." But  all  this  bluster  amounted  to  nothing. 
At  that  very  moment  the  Rebellion  was  crumbling, 
and  in  less  than  two  months  he  was  a  solitary  fugitive. 

The  morning  of  the  4th  of  March,  1865,  was 
dark,  rainy,  and  cold,  but  the  President,  tired  and 
gloomy,  was  at  the  Capitol  signing  bills,  and  doing 
all  he  could  to  give  effect  to  the- List  work  of  Con- 
gress. The  procession  to  escort  him,  according  to 
custom,  from  the  White  House,  moved  without  him. 
In  the  Senate  Chamber  Andrew  Johnson  had  taken 
the  oath  of  office  as  Vice-President,  and  delivered  an 
address.  The  clouds  had  broken  away,  and  as  the 
tall,  weary  President  stepped  upon  the  eastern  por- 
tico of  the  Capitol  the  sun  burst  upon  his  uncovered 
head  amidst  the  shouts  of  the  great  concourse  of 
eager  and  sympathetic  spectators  around  him. 

In  a  clear,  but  sad  tone,  he  then  delivered  this 
brief  and  remarkable 

INAUGUKAL   ADDRESS. 

Fellow-countrymen, — At  this  second  appearing  to  take 
the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an 
extended  address  than  there  was  at  first.  Then  a  statement  of 
a  course  to  be  pursued  seemed  very  fitting  and  proper. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  543 

Now,  at  tlie  expiration  of  four  years,  duriug  which  public 
declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth  on  every  point 
and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  absorbs  the  attention 
and  eugrosses  the  energies  of  the  Nation,  little  that  is  new  could 
be  presented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  de- 
pends, is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself,  and  it  is,  I 
trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With  high 
hopes  for  the  future,  no  predictiou  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this,  four  years  ago,  all 
thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war. 
All  dreaded  it ;  all  sought  to  avoid  it. 

While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from  this 
place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without  war, 
insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy  it  without 
war;  seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union  and  divide  the  effects  by 
negotiation.  Both  parties  deprecated  war,  but  one  of  them 
would  make  war  rather  than  let  the  Nation  survive,  and  the 
other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish  ;  and  the  war 
came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored  slaves,  not 
distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized  in  the 
southern  part  of  it. 

These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest. 
All  knew  that  this  interest  was  somehow  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the 
object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union  by  war, 
while  the  Government  claimed  no  right  to  more  than  restrict 
the  territorial  enlargement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  tlie 
duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither  anticipated 
that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease  with,  or  even  before 
the  conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an  easier 
triumph,  and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding. 

Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and 
each  invokes  his  aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange 
that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in 
wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces ;  but 
let  us  judge  not,  that  we  may  not  be  judged.     The  prayer  of 


544  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

both  could  not  be  answered.  That  of  neither  has  been  answered 
fiillv.  The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  ''  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offenses,  for  it  must  needs  be  that  offenses 
come:  bin  woe  unto  the  man  br  whom  the  offense  cometh."  If 
we  shall  suppose  tbat  American  slavery  is  one  of  these  offenses 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God.  must  needs  come,  but  which, 
haviug  continued  through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills  to 
remove,  and  that  he  gives  to  both  Xorth  and  South  this  terrible 
war  as  the  woe  due  to  those  bv  whom  the  offense  came,  shall 
we  discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  divine  attributes 
which  the  believers  in  a  liviug  G<-xl  always  ascribe  to  him  ? 

Fondlv  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty 
scourge  of  war  mav  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God  wills  that 
it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and 
until  everv  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  l->e  paid  by 
another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
vears  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  the  judgments  of  the  Lord 
are  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

With  malice  toward  no  one,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firm- 
ness in  the  risrht  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive 
on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in.  to  bind  up  the  Xation's  wounds, 
to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow  and  his  orphans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations. 

The  religious  tone  of  this  nddress  doubtlessly 
startled  some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Western  friends  :  and 
the  air  of  sadness  that  pervaded  it  was  not  forgotten 
six  weeks  later  when  he  ha<l  fallen  beneath  the 
assassin's  hand.  Coming  events  had  cast  their 
mystic  shadow  before.  The  circumstances  had 
never  existed  previously  in  the  history  of  this 
countrv  to  brimx  forth  an  inaugural  address  like  this, 
nor  would  it  have  been  possible  for  any  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's    predecessors    to    produce    such  an  address 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  545 

even  had  the  circumstances  favored  it.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
political  and  official  speeches  and  papers  have  in 
them  a  directness,  simplicity,  and  originality  which 
render  them  entirely  unique  in  the  political  literature 
of  his  age  and  country.  They  lacked  some  of  the 
polish  and  glitter,  to  say  nothing  of  the  verbosity, 
displayed  by  many  of  the  occupants  of  the  Execu- 
tive Chair,  but  if  they  lost  anything  in  these  respects 
they  made  up  for  it  in  more  enduring  and  admirable 
qualities. 

35— Q 


546  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

1864— WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION— GRANT  AND  SHERMAN- 
END  OF  MISTAKES— ATLANTA  CAMPAIGN— RESACA— 
KENESAW  MOUNTAIN  —  DALTON  —  ATLANTA  —  STONE- 
MAN— FROM  THE  RAPIDAN  TO  PETERSBURG —THE 
WILDERNESS— COLD  HARBOR— HOOD  IN  TENNESSEE— 
FRANKLIN— NASHVILLE— SHERMAN  BEGINS  HIS  WON- 
DERFUL MARCH  TO  THE  SEA. 

HERETOFORE  it  has  been  convenient  and  some- 
what necessary  to  treat  of  military  affairs  sep- 
arately on  each  side  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains; 
but  early  in  the  spring  of  1864  an  event  took  place 
rendering  the  continuance  of  this  plan  unimportant 
in  the  brief  view  which  the  comparative  size  these 
volumes  has  already  reached  compels  me  to  take. 
This  was  the  appointment  of  General  Grant  to  com- 
mand the  entire  army  of  the  United  States.  The 
failure  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  make  any 
great  headway  against  the  rebel  force  which  opposed 
it,  and  the  common  lack  of  confidence  in  General 
Halleck,  the  General-in-Chief,  gave  rise  to  a  strong 
demand  for  placing  the  direction  of  military  concerns 
in  other  hands.  In  order  to  relieve  the  case  of  any 
difficulties  and  uncertainties,  Congress  revived  the 
rank  of  Lieutenant-General  which  had  been  borne  by 
General  Washington  only,  and   by  General  Scott  by 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  547 

brevet;  and  that  the  President  should  make  no  mis- 
take in  the  man,  Congress  passed  a  resolution  recom- 
mending the  appointment  of  Grant.  But  this  caution 
was  unnecessary.  Mr.  Lincoln  joined  in  the  general 
sentiment,  and  on  the  2d  of  March,  the  day  after  the 
act  creating  the  office  was  finally  passed  and  signed, 
he  sent  to  the  Senate  the  name  of  General  Grant. 

On  the  9th  of  March,  1864,  in  Washington,  the 
President  delivered  to  Grant  his  commission  as  Lieu- 
tenant-General,  and  without  delay  he  set  about  the 
task  before  him.  Some  of  his  acts  had  been  severely 
criticised,  and  there  were  not  wanting  those  who  be- 
lieved that  McClellan,  Buell,  or  somebody  else,  should 
have  been  selected  instead  of  this  stubborn,  silent  sol- 
dier. But  he  had  been  more  successful  than  any  other 
general,  and  it  was  well  known  that  he  was  without 
political  bias.  He  took  a  soldier's  view  of  the  war, 
believing  there  was  but  one  thing  for  him  to  do, 
crush  the  military  strength  of  the  Rebellion.  This 
was  his  faith  and  the  principle  which  controlled  liis 
conduct.  "From  the  first  I  was  firm  in  the  convic- 
tion that  no  peace  could  be  had  that  would  be  stable 
and  conducive  to  the  happiness  of  the  people,  both 
North  and  South,  until  the  military  power  of  the 
Rebellion  was  entirely  broken."  This  it  was,  after 
he  had  started  on  his  march  to  Richmond  and  fought 
the  great  battle  of  the  AVilderness,  that  took  form  in 
his  memorable  expression  :  "  I  propose  to  fight  it 
out  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer." 

The  President  and  the  people  made  no  mistake 
this  time.     The  right  man   had  been    selected  ;  per- 


548  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

haps  the  only  man  known  in  the  Nation  fit  to  direct 
the  military  affairs  of  the  war  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion. Under  him  one  general  plan  was  at  once 
adopted  for  putting  into  active  and  constant  opera- 
tions the  whole  war  force  at  the  command  of  the 
Government,  and  directing  it  to  one  final  point.  Hav- 
ing no  time  or  inclination  to  remain  under  the  mis- 
chievous political  influences  of  Washington,  General 
Grant  at  once  visited  the  he;id-quarters  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  and  then  went  to  Nashville  to  con- 
sult with  and  lay  his  plans  before  Sherman,  whom 
he  considered  the  most  able  of  all  his  aids. 

General  Halleck  was  now  made  chief  of  the  army 
staff,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  reorganized  and 
relieved  of  some  of  its  inefficient  and  supernumerary 
officers,  and  thoroughly  equipped  for  the  great  cam- 
paign before'  it. 

The  main  interests  of  the  war  from  this  time  on 
centered  around  the  operations  of  Grant  and  Sher- 
man, although  the  capture  of  Mobile  and  its  forts, 
and  the  capture  of  Fort  Fisher  and  the  port  of  Wil- 
mington, North  Carolina,  the  last  gate-way  of  free- 
booters and  foreign  blockade-runners,  were  events  of 
incalculable  advantage  to  the  cause  of  the  country. 
A  vast  number  of  minor  operations  and  engagements 
would  also  deserve  mention  in  a  more  detailed  his- 
tory of  the  battle  and  bloody  side  of  the  war. 

The  two  important  rebel  forces  were  collected 
under  Lee  in  Virginia,  and  Joseph  E.  Johnston  in 
the  mountains  south  of  Chattanooga.  These  it  was 
Grant's  purpose  to  strike  simultaneously,  and  orders 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  549 

were  issued  for  a  general  movement  of  the  armies  on 
the  4th  of  May,  1864. 

At  this  time  Sherman,  with  his  advance  at  Ring- 
gold, Georgia,  had  an  effective  force  of  between 
ninety  and  a  hundred  thousand  men  of  all  arms ; 
and  opposed  to  him  was  Johnston's  army  at  Dalton 
then  not  half  so  large,  but  which  before  the  cam- 
paign was  far  advanced  reached,  perhaps,  sixty  thou- 
sand, and  by  the  statement  of  the  not  very  reliable 
General  Hood,  seventy  thousand.  In  the  defenses 
of  Atlanta  the  rebel  force  was  also  greatly  aug- 
mented by  Governor  Brown's  Georgia  militia,  not 
numbered  in  the  regular  army  conscripts. 

As  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  began  to  cross  the 
llapidan  on  the  5th  of  May,  Sherman  set  forward  to 
destroy  Johnston  or  drive  him  from  the  mountains 
of  Georgia,  and  the  two  remarkable  final  campaigns 
of  the  war  were  commenced.  The  march  of  Sher- 
man to  Atlanta  was  conducted  on  the  same  general 
plan  as  that  of  Grant  to  Richmond,  and  was,  while 
being  laid  in  a  country  presenting  more  natural  ob- 
stacles to  success,  identical  in  many  respects.  From 
Chattanooga  to  the  Chattahoochee  River  within  eight 
miles  of  Atlanta,  a  series  of  mountain  ridges  and 
spurs  cut  by  rivers  and  poor  narrow  valleys  rendered 
this  one  of  the  most  easily  defended  regions  on  the 
continent,  and  consequently  the  hazardous  task  im- 
posed upon  and  so  successfully  executed  by  Sher- 
man will  ever  meet  the  admiration  of  the  world, 
and  stand  among  the  greatest  of  military  achieve- 
ments.    The  result  of  the   campaign  of  Atlanta  was 


550  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

not  creditable  to  General  Johnston,  although  his 
regular  force  was  much  inferior  in  numbers  to  that 
of  his  antagonist.  His  appointment  to  the  command 
over  Bragg  had  been  submitted  to  by  Mr.  Davis 
against  his  will,  and  Davis's  unfriendly  disposition 
toward  him  remained  unbroken  to  the  end,  and,  in- 
deed, continues  to  this  day,  Bragg,  who  was  also 
unfriendly  to  Johnston,  was  put  in  a  superior  posi- 
tion at  Richmond.  The  correspondence  between 
Johnston,  Davis,  Bragg,  and  the  rebel  war  depart- 
ment throughout  the  campaign  was  more  in  the  spirit 
of  personal  enmity  than  of  men  engaged  in  a  com- 
mon struggle  which  stood  much  in  need  of  harmony 
from  the  beginning.  Bragg  distinctly  stated  that 
the  effort  to  re-enforce  and  strengthen  Johnston 
would  depend  upon  his  assent  to  enter  at  once  upon 
an  offensive  policy  for  the  recovery  of  Tennessee 
and  Kentucky ;  and  while  not  directly  dissenting, 
Johnston  saw  the  necessity  of  first  fighting  Sherman 
who  was  in  his  way^  The  following  extract  from 
General  Johnston's  "  Narrative  "  will  plainly  show  that 
he  was  not  unmindful  in  his  own  operations  of  the  ad- 
vantage which  might  accrue  to  the  Northern  allies : — 

"  The  Northern  Democrats  had  pronounced  the  man- 
agement of  the  war  a  failure,  and  declared  against  its  con- 
tinuance; and  the  Presidential  election,  soon  to  occur, 
was  to  turn  upon  the  question  of  immediate  peace  or  con- 
tinued war.  In  all  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  1864,  the 
press  had  been  publishing  to  the  Northern  people  most 
exaggerated  ideas  of  the  military  value  of  Atlanta,  and 
that  it  was  to  be  taken,  and  that  its  capture  would  termi- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  551 

nate  the  war.  If  Sherman  had  been  foiled,  these  teachings 
would  have  caused  great  exaggeration  of  the  consequences 
of  his  failure,  which  would  have  strengthened  the  peace 
party  greatly ;  so  much,  perhaps,  as  to  have  enabled  it  to 
carry  the  Presidential  election,  which  would  have  brought 
the  war  to  an  immediate  close." 

And  how  could  such  an  event  as  the  success  of 
the  Democrats  at  that  election  have  brought  the  war 
to  an  immediate  close?  Evidently  in  no  other  way 
than  by  the  Mexicanization  of  the  Government,  by 
the  successful  candidate  and  his  party  at  once  seiz- 
ing the  Presidential  office  and  driving  out  the  still 
legal  Administration,  and  then  acknowledging  the  in- 
dependence of  the  South.  General  Johnston  was 
well  informed  as  to  the  character  and  purposes  of  the 
Northern  Democratic  leaders.  But  he  utterly  f^iiled 
to  carry  out  his  part  of  the  scheme  by  whipping 
Sherman.  In  the  series  of  battles  from  Dalton  to 
Atlanta,  over  an  almost  impassable  country,  covered 
with  natural  positions  for  defej^se  against  any  su- 
perior force,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  great 
amount  of  generalship  on  the  part  of  General  John- 
ston, however  much  the  conduct  of  the  rebel  sol- 
diers may  have  been  worthy  of  admiration.  Had 
he  conducted  the  campaign  with  even  Lee's  skill  and 
stubbornness  in  Virginia,  Sherman's  march  to  Atlanta 
might  have  been  greatly  delayed,  at  least. 

Sherman  finding  that  Rocky-Face  Ridge,  and  the 
gap  in  which  the  railroad  passed  through  it  strongly 
barricaded  and  defended  by  Johnston's  troops,  pre- 
sented an  impracticable  obstacle  to  his  reaching  the 


552  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

rebel  army  ;it  Dal  ton,  began  his  first  skillful  move- 
ment. On  the  8th  of  May  McPherson  passed  through 
Snake  Creek  Gap,  the  greater  part  of  the  army  soon 
following,  thus  turning  the  rebel  position  and  com- 
pelling Johnston  to  retreat  to  Resaca,  where  on  the 
14th  and  15th  a  severe  battle  was  fought,  with  heavy 
losses  on  both  sides,  but  especially  in  the  Union 
army.  Johnston  now  fell  back  to  the  Etowah,  but 
this  strong  position  he  also  abandoned,  retreating  to 
Altoona  Pass.  After  another  battle  at  New  Hope 
Church,  Sherman  also  turned  this  position.  At  Ken- 
esaw  Mountain  Johnston  made  his  next  stand,  where 
on  the  27th  of  June  Sherman  attacked  him  at  two 
points  and  was  severely  repulsed.  This  event,  which 
was  no  more  than  Sherman  expected,  again  drove 
him  to  his  former  plan  of  turning  the  rebel  position, 
from  which  he  had  only  departed  for  policy's  sake. 
This  movement  forced  Johnston  back  to  the  Chatta- 
hoochee River,  which  he  soon  abandoned,  and  fell  back 
to  the  fortifications  around  Atlanta,  where  he  was 
relieved  from  the  command,  and  General  J.  B.  Hood 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  rebel  army.  Hood  was  a 
more  impulsive  and  in  every  way  less  able  ofiicer 
than  Johnston,  although  he  did  not  at  the  outset  de- 
part from  the  plans  of  his  former  superior. 

Hood  sallied  from  his  fortifications  and  fought 
several  battles  around  Atlanta,  but  was  repulsed  with 
great  loss,  finally  abandoning  all  hope  of  preventing 
Sherman's  turning  his  position.  The  Federal  cavalry 
had  broken  the  lines  of  communication  on  the  south, 
and  Stoneman,  who  was  never  a  very  successful  officer. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  553 

in  an  attempt  to  reach  the  prison  pens  at  Macon, 
allowed  himself  to  be  surrounded,  and  was  forced  to 
surrender  with  a  considerable  part  of  his  command. 
The  rebel  general  unwisely  lost  the  use  of  his  cav- 
alry, one  fifth  of  his  entire  force,  in  an  attempt  to 
destroy  Sherman's  line  of  communications  with  Chat- 
tanooga. And  although  the  damage  done  to  Sher- 
man was  not  inconsiderable,  it  did  not  alter  or  check 
his  plans  for  a  moment.  The  rebel  cavnlry  had 
scarcely  left  a  burning  bridge  until  a  construction 
train  with  a  thousand  skillful  workmen  was  on  the 
spot  to  rebuild  it. 

Early  in  August  Sherman  began  his  movements  to 
turn  Atlanta,  and  force  its  abandonment  by  the  reb- 
els. By  the  first  of  September  he  had  reached  Jones- 
borough,  twenty  miles  south  of  Atlanta,  drawing  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  rebel  army  after  him, 
making  that  part  of  it  left  in  the  fortifications,  with 
all  the  Georgia  militia,  too  weak  to  attack  Schofield, 
and  the  part  in  front  of  him  too  weak  to  resist  the 
advance  of  the  army  with  him. 

In  this  condition  of  affairs  nothing  was  left  to 
Hood  but  to  give  up  Atlanta,  which  he  did  on  the 
night  of  September  1st.  On  the  next  day  the  Fed- 
eral troops  took  possession  of  it.  Sherman  soon 
afterwards  sent  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  families 
from  the  town  into  Hood's  army,  and  then  burned 
most  of  the  place,  sparing  only  churches  and  dwell- 
ing-houses, a  performance  which,  however  justifiable 
under  any  war  code,  was  not  so  clearly  politic  and 
wise  in  view  of  events  that  speedily  followed. 


554  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

In  the  campaign  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta  the 
entire  loss  in  the  national  army  amounted  to  thirty 
thousand  men,  and  among  the  brave  men  who  fell 
was  James  Birdseye  McPherson,  of  whose  military 
skill  Grant  thought  more,  perhaps,  than  that  of  any 
other  officer  in  the  army  besides  Sherman.  The 
rebel  losses  were  probably  greater,  and  among  the 
most  distinguished,  if  not  soldierly,  of  their  officers 
who  fell  was  the  Episcopal  Bishop,  General  Leonidas 
Polk. 

This  campaign  ending  in  the  fall  of  Atlanta  had 
been  extremely  disastrous  to  the  rebel  cause.  It 
spread  consternation  and  dismay  throughout  the  "  Con- 
federacy." Jefferson  Davis  came  down  to  see  Hood, 
and  distinguished  himself  by  several  very  undignified 
and  foolish  speeches  at  different  points  on  his  route. 
He  was  determined  on  another  sortie  toward  the 
North,  and  Hood  with  his  inadequate  force  was  will- 
ing to  undertake  it.  Partly  for  this  purpose  this  rash 
officer  had  displaced  a  more  cautious  and  able  gen- 
eral. Accordingly,  toward  the  close  of  September, 
Hood  left  Sherman  in  possession  of  Georgia,  crossed 
the  Chattahoochee,  and  set  out  on  his  fatal  expedi- 
tion to  Tennessee. 

The  result  of  this  campaign  was  received  with 
great  exultation  throughout  the  North.  On  the  3d 
of  September,  the  President  issued  a  proclamation 
calling  upon  the  people  to  give  thanks  for  "the  sig- 
nal success  that  Divine  Providence  has  recently  vouch- 
safed to  the  operations  of  the  United  States  fleet 
and  army." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  555 

The  following  order  was  also  issued : 

"Executive  Mansion,  September  3,  1864. 

"  The  national  thanks  are  tendered  by  the  President  to 
Major-General  William  T.  Sherman  and  the  gallant  officers 
and  soldiers  of  his  command  before  Atlanta,  for  the  dis- 
tinguished ability,  courage,  and  perseverance  displayed  in 
the  campaign  in  Georgia,  which  under  Divine  Providence 
resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Atlanta.  The 
marches,  battles,  sieges,  and  other  military  operations  that 
have  signalized  this  campaign,  must  render  it  famous  in 
the  annals  of  war,  and  have  entitled  those  who  have  par- 
ticipated therein  to  the  applause  and  thanks  of  the  Nation. 

"  Abraham  Lincoln." 

While  it  is,  perhaps,  true  that  Grant  took  per- 
sonal command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  with 
some  reluctance,  this  feeling  was,  no  doubt,  counter- 
bnlanced  to  a  great  extent  by  his  disposition  to  do 
what  was  expected  of  him,  and  his  desire  to  encounter 
Lee.  His  course,  from  the  outset,  was  such  as  to 
conciliate  and  inspire  confidence.  Meade  was  placed 
second  in  command,  a  step  which  made  in  his  favor 
with  the  army.  Still  for  a  time  there  was  a  consid- 
erable faction  against  him,  and  not  a  few  of  the 
officers  and  men  adhered  to  the  old  folly  concerning 
McClellan. 

By  the  time  appointed  for  a  general  movement  of 
all  the  forces.  Grant  had  visited  Butler,  in  command 
at  Fortress  Monroe,  and  consulted  with  him  concern- 
ing the  part  he  was  to  take  in  the  coming  campaign, 
and  no  effort  had  been  spared  anywhere  to  insure 
confidence  and  success. 


556  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Before  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  May, 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  over  a  hundred  thousand 
strong,  under  its  new  leader,  began  to  cross  the 
Rapidan. 

The  rebel  army,  under  General  Lee,  numbering 
nearly  seventy  thousand  made  little  or  no  resistance 
to  this  movement,  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  that 
throughout  the  series  of  battles  on  the  march  to 
Richmond,  Lee  did  not  undertake  to  dispute  the 
passage  of  any  of  the  numerous  rivers,  with  his 
strong  antagonist.  With  his  superior  strength  Gen- 
eral Grant  believed  that  the  rebels  would  not  offer 
him  battle,  but  would  retreat  before  him.  This  mis- 
take, for  which  there  was,  probably,  no  ground  of 
justification  in  Lee's  former  conduct,  led  to  another, 
which  came  very  near  being  disastrous  to  the 
national  cause.  This  was  in  crossing  the  army  into 
"  The  Wilderness "  rather  prepared  for  a  march  than 
a  battle.  "The  Wilderness"  was  not  the  spot  that 
Grant  would  have  chosen  for  a  battle,  even  with  a 
preponderant  force.  Here  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
had  once  been  unfortunate.  The  Wilderness  was  a 
dense  growth  of  pine  and  other  trees,  tangled  in  an 
almost  impenetrable  mass,  cut  by  deep  ravines,  and 
penetrated  by  a  few  narrow  roads,  rendering  an 
army  invisible  at  a  hundred  yards.  A  spot  where 
artillery  and  cavalry  were  comparatively  useless.  Lee 
knew  this  ground  well  and  determined  to  profit  by 
the  advantage  it  presented  for  striking  a  foe  outnum- 
bering him  nearly  two  to  one,  or  at  least  very  greatly. 
Accordingly,  instead  of  retreating,  as  Grant  expected 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  557 

him  to  do,  Lee  fell  upon  the  Federal  army,  and  the 
great  battles  of  "  TheWilderness"  were  fought  on  the 
5th  and  6th  of  May,  with  a  loss  on  the  Union  side 
double  that  of  the  rebels.  But  the  battles  taught  Lee 
the  stubborn  and  determined  character  of  his  antago- 
nist, and  put  him  strictly  on  the  defensive,  a  position 
he  was  never  able  to  change  materially.  They  also 
taught  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  that  it  had  a  leader 
who  was  not  to  be  rendered  inactive  by  repulse  or 
deterred  by  difficulties.  On  the  7th,  Grant  again 
moved  forward  in  an  eifort  to  turn  the  rebel  right 
and  fall  btween  him  and  Richmond.  But  in  this  he 
was  not  successful.  Lee  soon  detecting  his  purpose, 
and  being  on  the  inside  line  retired  with  his  own 
force,  and  at  Spottsylvania  Court  House  behind  his 
intrenchments  was  ready  to  dispute  the  Federal  ad- 
vance. And  here  again  great  battles  were  fought  on 
the  10th  and  12th,  in  which  the  Union  losses  were 
much  greater  than  the  rebel. 

In  a  few  days,  with  the  army  raised  to  nearly  its 
original  numbers  by  re-enforcements,  Grant  again  set 
forward  in  his  vain  effort  to  get  between  Lee  and  his 
seat  of  supplies.  His  cavalry,  skillfully  managed  by 
Sheridan,  was  kept  iu  constant  employment,  still  not 
able  to  accomplish  all  he  had  expected  of  it. 

By  the  last  of  May  the  Union  army  had  reached 
the  neighborhood  of  Cold  Harbor  and  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  with  its  base  of  supplies  at  McClellan's  old 
depot,  White  House  on  the  Pamunckey  River. 
Here,  at  Cold  Harbor,  on  the  first  of  June,  one  of 
the  most  desperate  battles  of  the   war   was   fought, 


558  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Grant  attacking  the  rebels  in  their  fortifications,  and 
losing  two  men  to  their  one. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Butler,  who  had  moved 
up  the  James  River,  and  fortified  himself  at  Bermuda 
Hundred,  made  some  demonstrations  toward  Peters- 
burg and  Richmond,  but  had  failed  to  take  the  former 
place  as  Grant  expected  him  to  do. 

Franz  Sigel,  who  was  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
had  also  fjiiled  to  carry  out  his  part  of  the  pro- 
gramme, and  had  been  superseded  by  General  Hun- 
ter, who  was  forced  to  abandon  the  Valley  and  make 
a  pitiable  retreat  through  West  Virginia  to  the  Ohio 
River. 

After  the  battle  of  Cold  Harbor,  Lee  went  into  his 
fortifications  at  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  and  with- 
out molestation  Grant  crossed  the  Chickahominy,  and 
on  the  15th  of  June  reached  the  James  River  with 
his  army,  now  larger  than  when  he  crossed  the  Rapi- 
dan  on  the  4th  of  May.  His  losses  had  been  fifty 
thousand,  of  which  more  than  eight  thousand  were 
killed  and  more  than  thirty -five  thousand  wounded. 
Among  the  many  valuable  officers  who  had  fallen 
was  General  John  Sedgwick. 

On  reaching  the  fortifications  at  Richmond,  includ- 
ing all"  his  re-enforcements  under  Beauregard,  Breck- 
inridge, and  others,  Lee's  army  numbered  about  ninet}^ 
thousand,  his  losses  in  the  series  of  battles  from  the 
Rapidan  being  about  thirty  thousand. 

Grant  was  now  before  Richmond,  and  had  settled 
down  to  a  siege  of  that  place.  His  object  from  the 
outset  was  to  destroy  Lee's  army,  and  not  the  capture 


ABEAHAM  LINCOLN.  559 

of  Richmond,  and  of  this  purpose  he  never  lost  sight. 
He  had  failed  to  meet  Lee  in  open  battle  as  he  hoped 
to  do,  and  that  officer  was  too  wary  to  allow  himself 
to  be  cut  off  from  his  base  of  supplies,  and  crushed 
by  an  overwhelming  force.  Lee  having  the  inside 
line,  and  an  almost  unbroken  chain  of  fortifications 
from  the  Rapidan  to  the  James,  had  been  able  with 
pluck  and  watchfulness  to  thwart  the  intentions  of 
his  skillful  and  powerful  foe.  This  he  had  done 
without  the  exhibition  of  great  gener;dship.  And 
while  there  was  no  very  mnrked  display  of  military 
genius  on  either  side,  the  failure  of  General  Grant  to 
accomplish  fully  his  original  purpose  was  no  good 
ground  for  an  argument  in  support  of  the  want  of 
great  generalship  in  him.  While  the  country  cried 
out  loudly  against  the  enormous  losses,  the  unaltera- 
ble conviction  was  reached  that  Lee  had  met  more 
than  his  match,  and  that  the  end  was  not  far  distant. 
Again,  returning  for  a  time  to  the  West,  Sherman 
is  found  still  at  Atlanta,  nearly  three  hundred  miles 
from  Nashville,  and  four  hundred  and  seventy-five 
from  Louisville,  with  all  his  supplies  to  be  drawn  over 
one  railroad  through  a  hostile  country.  It  would  have 
been  reasonable,  even  in  a  man  of  ordinary  military 
wisdom,  to  suppose  that  when  the  whole  rebel  army 
had  turned  upon  his  communications,  Sherman  would 
be  forced  to  follow,  and  thus  abandon  the  ground  he 
had  gained.  This  was  General  Hood's  conclusion  when 
he  determined  to  march  towards  Nashville.  And  even 
General  Grant  thought  that  Sherman  should  follow  and 
whip  Hood.     And  this  he  did  for  a  time  undertake 


560  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  do.  He  sent  Thomas  to  Nashville  to  organize  and 
command  a  force  to  operate  against  Hood,  and  sent 
nearly  thirty  thousand  of  his  own  men  to  his  aid,  and 
after  seeing  that  Thomas  was  able  to  contend  with 
his  foe,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  daring  scheme 
to  be  briefly  described  further  on. 

Much  against  his  will,  Jefferson  Davis  had  sub- 
mitted to  placing  General  Beauregard  nominally  in 
command  of  all  the  troops  in  this  region,  and  although 
Beauregard  joined  the  army  and  went  with  it  into 
Tennessee,  he  did  not  interfere  with  Hood's  disposi- 
tion of  affairs,  and  finally  declined  to  go  on  to  Nash- 
ville. He  seemed  to  have  lost  most  of  his  interest 
in  a  cause  which  he  already  believed  to  be  lost 
under  the  bad  management  of  Mr.  Davis. 

Hood  divided  his  army,  increased  against  he 
reached  Nashville  to  nearly  sixty  thousand  men,  into 
three  corps,  under  Stephen  D.  Lee,  B.  F.  Cheatham, 
and  A.  P.  Stewart;  and  James  Wheeler  and  N.  B. 
Forrest  commanded  his  cavalry  force.  But  he  was 
unfortunate  from  the  outset,  and  soon  began  to  dis- 
play his  temper  in  quarrels  with  his  officers,  against 
whom  he  had  the  best  grounds  of  complaint.  It  Avas 
no  fault  of  his  that  Johnston  had  been  removed  from 
the  command,  whom  they  considered  much  his  supe- 
rior, if  not  the  first  soldier  of  the  "  Confederacy." 
To  their  failure  to  execute  his  orders,  Hood  attrib- 
uted the  great  part  of  his  disaster  on  this  expedi- 
tion. But  his  campaign  showed  plainly  enough 
that  the  military  spirit  of  the  Rebellion  was  broken. 
Schofield,  who  had  been  sent  from  Nashville   with 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  561 

about    seventeen     thousand    men,    to     opjDOse    his 
march,  retreated  before  him  to  Columbia,  where  he 
suffered   a   very    narrow   escape   and   greatly   shook 
Grant's  confidence  in  his  ability.     But,  through  the 
inaction  of  Hood's  officers,  Schofield  was  allowed  to 
correct  his  error  to  some  extent,  and  effect  his  escape, 
when  it  was   in   their  power  to  prevent  it.     Partly 
through  necessity  Schofield  stopped  at  Franklin,  eight- 
een miles  from  Nashville,  where  the  rebels,  following 
close  on  his  heels,  attacked  him  and  in  a  great  battle 
met  a  bloody  repulse,  losing  six  thousand  of  their  men, 
while  his  own  loss  was  not  one-third  as  many.     In  the 
night  he  slipped  away  to  Nashville.  Notwithstanding 
this  disaster,  in  which  many  of  his  bravest  officers  had 
fallen,  Hood  moved  on  to  Nashville,  where  Thomas, 
finally  ready  with  a  force  somewhat  greater  than  his 
own,  moved  out  of  his  intrenchments  on  the  15th  of 
December  and  assaulted  him,  the   battle  continuing 
the  greater  part  of  that  and  the  next  day,  and  result- 
ing in   the  complete   overthrow   of  the   rebel  army. 
Between  fifteen  and  twenty  thousand  prisoners  were 
taken,  and,  unlike  all  other    cases,  the   pursuit  was 
pushed  with  great  vigor  for  two  hundred  miles,  until 
the  rebel  army  was  mainly  disorganized  in  Alabama 
and  Mississippi,  and  Hood  relieved  of  the  command. 
In  the  meantime  Sherman  had  not  been  idle.    At 
first  with  a  view  of  making  Atlanta  a   military  post, 
when  his  weak  foe  was  before  him,  he  had  found  it 
necessary  to   remove   the   remaining  population   be- 
yond his  lines.     After  Hood  had  marched  northward, 
and  he  had  arranged  for  Thomas  to  take  care  of  him, 

36— Q 


562  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Sherman  sought  permission  of  Gr;int  to  cut  loose 
from  his  old  line  of  supplies  and  seek  an  outlet  on 
the  Atlantic.  About  the  1st  of  November  Grant 
gave  his  consent  and  blessing,  and  the  preparation 
began  in  earnest.  The  wonderful  thing  which  Jef- 
ferson Davis  or  no  other  person  ever  expected  to 
occur  Sherman  now  did  :  cut  his  own  communications. 
The  railroad  from  Atlanta  to  Chattanooga  was 
destroyed,  many  of  the  bridges  which  he  had  him- 
self rebuilt  were  burned,  and  now  it  became  a  neces- 
sity to  destroy  all  that  part  of  Atlanta  which  could 
be  of  military  advantage  to  the  enemy  after  his  de- 
parture. With  his  army  of  sixty-five  thousand  men, 
including  five  thousand '  five  hundred  caA^alry  or- 
ganized into  two  corps  or  wings  under  0.  0.  Howard 
and  H.  W.  Slocum,  and  the  cavalry  under  Judson  C. 
Kilpatrick,  on  the  16th  of  November,  Sherman  began 
his  memorable  march  to  the  sea.  The  distance-  from 
Atlanta  to  Savannah  is  about  three  hundred  miles. 
On  the  21st  of  December  he  took  possession  of  the 
latter  place,  Hardee,  with  a  considerable  force,  hav- 
ing escaped  from  it  towards  Charleston  during  the 
preceding  night.  This  w^onderful  march  had  been 
made  with  a  loss  of  two  or  three  hundred  men,  and 
a  desolate  track  thirty  or  forty  miles  wide,  including 
the  two  great  railroads  connecting  Atlanta  with  Sa- 
vannah and  Charleston,  marked  where  the  "  Confed- 
eracy "  had  again  been  cut  in  two. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  563 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

BEGINNING  OF  THE  END— SHERMAN  IN  NORTH  CARO- 
LINA—FALL OF  CHARLESTON— MR.  LINCOLN'S  COUN- 
CIL WITH  HIS  GREAT  CAPTAINS— FIVE  FORKS— FALL 
OF  RICHMOND— SHERMAN  AND  JOHNSTON— END  OF 
THE  WAR— CLOSING  SCENES  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  MR.  LIN- 
COLN—DEATH—THE NATION  IN  SORROW. 

GRANT  had  driven  the  rebel  army  from  the  Rap- 
idan  to  Richmond.  His  loss  had  been  great, 
but  he  could  aiford  to  lose  two  men  to  Lee's  one. 
And  even  this  would  not  represent  the  relative 
strength  and  resources  of  the  two  contending  forces, 
by  i\f  great  deal.  The  boastful  and  arrogant  rebel 
leaders  now  began  to  feel  how  puny  was  their  power 
in  comparison  with  the  skillfully  handled  and  almost 
inexhaustible  resources  of  the  Government.  The 
strong  man  was  fixing  a  death  grasp  on  the  Rebellion. 
Its  vital  center  had  been  torn  asunder,  and  another 
onset  would  crush  the  reptile's  head. 

Petersburg,  about  twenty  miles  from  Richmond, 
was  considered  the  key  to  that  place.  It  was  a  rail- 
road center,  was  the  direct  way  of  connection  with 
Wilmington  and  Charleston,  and  when  it  fell  Rich- 
mond would  be  no  longer  tenable.  Against  this 
point  Grant  directed  the  greater  part  of  his  attention 
during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1864.      But  his  great 


564  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

army  made  slow  progress.  Lee  not  only  held  with 
great  skill  his  long  defensive  works,  but  also  occa- 
sionally sallied  forth,  striking  his  foe  with  telling  ef- 
fect. As  the  winter  wore  on,  however,  courage  and 
hope  died  in  the  rebels.  The  army  under  Lee  was 
rapidly  melting  away.  Its  numerical  strength  wns 
always  greatly  exaggerated,  and  especially  towards 
the  end,  when  a  handful  of  brave  men  in  their  strong 
intrenchments  kept  at  bay  Grant's  vast  artny.  Lee 
not  only  held  his  position  at  Petersburg  and  Rich- 
mond, but  also  in  the  Ml  of  1864  actually  withdrew 
a  part  of  his  force  for  quite  a  pretentious  sortie  to- 
wards Washington  and  into  Pennsylvania.  This  was, 
however,  of  little  consequence,  and  Grant  sent  Sher- 
idan, 'who  finally  cleared  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
and  after  becoming  master  of  all  the  country  north 
of  Richmond,  early  in  the  spring  joined  Grant  to 
take  part  in  the  final  scenes  of  the  Rebellion. 

Sherman  had  in  the  mean  time  been  instructed  to 
move  north  to  co-operate  with  the  army  around  Rich- 
mond, and  Thomas  was  ordered  to  operate  in  the 
same  direction  with  his  cavalry  from  East  Tennessee. 
It  had,  perhaps,  been  a  part  of  Grant's  and  Sher- 
man's original  plan,  as  discussed  together  soon  after 
Grant  was  placed  in  command  of  all  the  armies,  to 
push  Sherman's  force  from  Atlanta  to  the  Gulf,  but 
circumstances  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta  caused  the 
General-in-Chief,  as  well  as  Sherman,  to  turn  his 
thoughts  towards  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  He  at  first 
thought  that  Sherman  should  follow  up  and  defeat 
Hood  before  starting   on  this  expedition,  but  when 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  565 

he  saw  that  he  could  give  Thomas  the  necessary 
strength,  he  fell  into  Sherman's  view  that  the  favor- 
able moment  had  arrived  for  the  march  through  the 
country  to  the  coast.  This  reached,  he  seemed  to 
think  the  proper  way  for  Sherman  to  join  him  was 
by  the  sea.  Looking  to  this  end  he  set  to  work  to 
capture  Wilmington,  and  this  being  done  the  Atlantic 
coast  was  clear  of  rebel  control  at  all  points  in  his 
way.  But  Sherman  did  not  think  it  best  to  break 
the  discipline  of  his  army  by  a  sea  voyage,  correctly 
believing  that  he  could  better  serve  the  cause  by 
marching  overland.  To  this  view  Grant  finally  as- 
sented, too;  and  after  conducting  affairs  in  a  lively 
and  thorough  manner  in  Savannah  for  a  month,  Sher- 
man set  out,  towards  the  close  of  January,  for  Golds- 
boro.  North  Carolina. 

In  the  meantime,  pressed  by  necessity,  Jefferson 
Davis  had  again  called  Joseph  E.  Johnston  to  the 
front,  and  put  him  in  command  of  nil  the  forces  south 
of  Virginia  to  operate  against  Sherman.  But  the 
most  he  could  do  was  to  keep  out  of  Sherman's  way. 
The  Union  army  made  a  considerable  bend  to  the  in- 
terior, far  enough  to  take  in  and  destroy  Columbia. 
Hardee  also  evacuated  Charleston,  and  on  the  18th  of 
February,  1865,  General  Gillmore  entered  that  city. 

At  Bentonville  a  considerable  battle  was  fought, 
and  throughout  the  march  there  was  almost  constant 
skirmishing.  Still  Sherman  pursued  his  way,  leaving 
desolation  behind  him,  as  he  had  done  in  Georgia. 
On  the  21st  of  March  he  reached  Goldsboro,  where 
he  found  Schofield,  whom  Grant  had  sent,  with  over 


566  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

twenty  thousand  men,  from  Wilmington.  Leaving 
the  army  in  the  command  of  Schofield,  Sherman 
went  on  to  General  Grant's  head-quarters  at  City 
Point  on  the  James  River,  nine  miles  from  Peters- 
burg, where  on  the  27th  he  met  President  Lincoln, 
General  Grant,  and  Admiral  David  D.  Porter,  in 
council. 

The  10th  of  April  was  fixed  upon  as  the  day  for 
a  general  movement  for  the  last  struggle.  Lee's  line 
of  defense  was  now  thirty  miles  long,  a  length  he 
had  been  compelled  to  take  by  Grant's  repeated 
attempts  to  turn  his  right.  The  whole  number  of 
muskets  actually  guarding  this  line  on  the  last  day 
of  March  did  not  exceed  a  thousand  to  the  mile. 
The  most  wonderful  thing  in  all  this  bloody  contest 
between  Grant  and  Lee  was  the  holding  of  this  long 
line,  even  if  it  was  well  fortified,  against  the  vast 
army  before  it.  Grant  knew  the  character  of  the 
heroic  men  on  the  inside,  and  preferred  to  wait  until 
the  moment  came,  which  he  knew  would  come,  when 
he  could  take  it  without  great  loss  of  life  among  his 
own  men.  Lee  did  not  share  Mr.  Davis's  opinion 
that  Richmond  was  absolutely  essential  to  the  life 
of  the  Rebellion,  and  would  have  abandoned  it  before 
it  was  too  late  to  unite  all  their  forces  to  overwhelm 
Sherman  in  his  march  through  South  Carolina.  He 
saw  the  time  was  not  far  distant  when  Richmond 
would  have  to  be  abandoned.  On  the  2d  of  March, 
1865,  he  sent  a  letter  to  Grant  asking  an  interview 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  if  the  controversy,  as 
he  termed  it,  could  not  be  settled  by  a  convention. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  567 

Grant  sent  this  letter  to  Washington,  at  the  same 
time  showing  that  he  was  not  averse  to  meeting  Lee. 
The  following  reply,  written  by  Mr.  Lincoln  himself, 
was  returned : — 

"  Washington,  March  3,  1865,  12  P.  M. 
"  Lteutenant-General  Grant, — The  President  di- 
rects me  to  say  to  you  that  he  wishes  you  to  have  no 
conference  with  General  Lee,  unless  it  be  for  the  capitula- 
tion of  General  Lee's  army,  or  on  some  minor  and  purely 
military  matter.  He  instructs  me  to  say  that  you  are  not 
to  decide,  discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  political  question. 
Such  questions  the  President  holds  in  his  own  hands,  and 
will  submit  them  to  no  military  conferences  or  conven- 
tions. Meanwhile  you  are  to  press  to  the  utmost  your 
military  advantages. 

"  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War." 

Grant  now  becoming  uneasy  about  Lee's  getting 
away  from  him  to  prolong  the  contest  somewhere 
else,  renewed  his  vigilance,  and  desiring  his  army 
without  the  assistance  of  Sherman's  to  finish  the  task 
it  had  begun  on  the  Rapidan,  on  the  29th  of  March 
left  City  Point  to  begin  the  final  movement.  On 
account  of  the  heavy  rains  that  now  set  in  his 
progress  was  slow,  his  determination  being  to  turn 
the  rebel  right,  and  while  drawing  attention  to  this 
point  begin  the  assault  on  the  main  defensive  works. 
On  the  31st  Lee,  mistaking  Grant's  movement  on  his 
right  as  an  attempt  to  cut  the  South  side  railroad, 
simply  withdrew  from  the  lines  a  large  i)art  of  his 
small  army,  and  with  it  fell  with  desperation  upon 
Sheridan,  Avho  commanded  this  advance.  On  Satur- 
day, April  1st,  Sheridan  completely  routed  this  force 


568  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

in  .'I  great  battle  at  Five  Forks,  and  before  daylight 
on  Sunday  morning,  Grant  carried  the  rebel  works, 
and  before  noon  the  remnant  of  Lee's  army  was  put 
to  flight.  That  night  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  fol- 
lowers left  Richmond,  and  Ewell  burned  a  great  part 
of  the  city  with  the  rebel  archives.  The  criminals 
in  the  penitentiary  were  set  at  liberty,  the  city  plun- 
dered by  its  own  people,  and  a  night  of  horror  closed 
the  Rebellion  in  its  proud,  desolate  capital. 

On  the  3d  of  April  the  Federal  troops  took  pos- 
session of  the  city,  and  were  soon  able  to  arrest  the 
fire  and  restore  order.  And  on  the  next  day  Abraham 
Lincoln  walked  into  Richmond  amidst  the  shouts  and 
prayers  of  the  helpless  race  that  regarded  him  as  a 
savior. 

Lee  hoped  to  effect  his  escape  and  join  Johnston, 
with  some  vague  notions  of  still  being  able  to  con- 
tinue the  struggle.  But  as  to  the  conduct  of  his 
retreat  he  gave  no  orders,  and  hundreds  of  his  men 
deserted.  Their  officers  even  encouraged  them  to  do 
so.  And  notwithstanding  the  general  feeling  that  all 
was  lost,  most  of  those  remaining  with  him  fought 
with  great  bravery  when  called  upon  to  do  so.  When 
Lee  reached  the  Danville  Railroad  he  found  that  the 
almost  ubiquitous  Sheridan  had  preceded  him.  He 
then  continued  west  towards  Lynchburg,  only  to  find, 
at  Appomattox  Court-house,  that  Sheridan  was  before 
him  across  his  track,  not  only  with  his  cavalry,  but 
also  a  large  body  of  infantry  he  was  not  able  to 
resist.  Some  of  his  officers  had  already  advised  him 
to  surrender  the  hopeless  cause.     And  on  the  7th  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  569 

April,  in  a  letter  to  him,  General  Grant  had  invited 
hdm  to  do  the  same.  At  last,  on  the  morning  of  the 
9th,  after  a  vain  attempt  to  gain  some  political  ad- 
vantages from  Grant  by  letter,  the  two  commanders 
met  and  arranged  the  simple,  easy  terms  of  surren- 
der, as  dictated  by  Grant. 

Of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  Lee  had  left, 
of  all  branches  and  kinds,  only  about  twenty-eight 
thousand  men  to  be  surrendered.  From  the  Rapidan 
to  Appomattox  Court  House  it  had  made  a  gallant 
record  which,  in  a  better  cause,  would  have  been 
worthy  of  undying  fame. 

On  the  14th  of  April,  Johnston  invited  Sherman 
to  an  armistice  until  terms  for  the  surrender  of  the 
army  under  him  could  be  agreed  upon.  On  the  18th 
in  the  presence  of  General  John  C.  Breckinridge, 
then  the  rebel  secretary  of  war,  Sherman  and  John- 
ston drew  up  a  plan  for  the  surrender  of  the  latter, 
involving  political  principles  which  were  distasteful 
at  Washington,  and  especially  so  under  the  shadow 
of  the  great  misfortune  which  had  just  befallen  the 
country  in  the  moment  of  triumph.  And  General 
Grant  was  ordered  forward  to  take  command  of 
Sherman's  army  and  direct  matters  to  a  suitable  and 
honorable  result. 

But  Johnston  wisely  accepted  the  terms  given  to 
Lee,  asid  on  the  26th  of  April  the  surrender  was 
effected,  Sherman  still  conducting  the  negotiations, 
and  Grant  approving.  This  was  virtually  the  end 
of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion.  By  the  end  of  the 
following   month   the  authority  of  the    Government 


570  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

was  again  restored  to  the  Rio  Grande.  The  closing 
events  and  scenes  of  the  war,  and  the  conduct  of 
General  Sherman  for  which  he  was  so  entirely  mis- 
understood and  unjustly  censured,  must  be  treated 
of  in  the  history  of  the  next  Administration,  which 
had  its  existence  on  account  of  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln. 

In  September,  1862,  the  rebel  authorities  at 
Richmond  ordered  all  white  men  between  the  ages 
of  thirty-five  and  forty-five  into  the  army,  and  direc- 
tions were  given  to  catch  them  up  wherever  they 
could  be  found,  without  question  or  ceremony.  In 
February,  1864,  all  white  men  from  seventeen  to 
fifty  were  conscripted  for  the  war.  At  this  time, 
too,  all  male  free  negroes  were  ordered  into  the 
sm.'vice  of  the  rebel  army,  and  twenty  thousand  male 
slaves.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  as  it  becnme 
evident  that  all  other  resources  were  exhausted,  Mr. 
Davis  recommended  the  employment  of  negroes  as 
soldiers,  and  the  appropriation  of  the  entire  male 
slave  population  to  the  purposes  of  the  army,  prom- 
ising emancipation  as  a  reward  for  faithful  services. 
Virginia  stubbornly  opposed  this  measure,  and  at 
first  the  rebel  congress  declined  to  pass  a  bill  author- 
izing negro  soldiers.  Finally,  however,  the  meas- 
ure was  adopted,  and  Mr.  Davis  authorized  to  put 
into  the  army  one-fourth  of  all  the  male  negroes  be- 
tween the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty-five.  But  the 
time  had  passed  for  the  rebels  to  derive  either  good 
or  evil  from  this  source,  or,  indeed,  from  any  other. 

As   Grant   and    Sherman, were  preparing  for  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  571 

final  movement,  Mr.  Lincoln  relaxed  nothing  in  his 
own  efforts  to  give  the  crushing  blow  to  the  Rebell- 
ion. On  the  19th  of  March  he  issued  an  order  for 
the  arrest  of  all  citizens  or  domiciled  aliens  engaged 
in  trade  or  intercourse  with  the  rebels ;  directing  that 
all  non-resident  foreigners  found  violating  the  block- 
ade should  leave  the  United  States  in  twelve  days ; 
and  marshals  were  directed  to  arrest  and  imprison  all 
foreigners  found  disregarding  the  order. 

In  the  wild  rejoicing  over  the  fall  of  Richmond 
Mr.  Lincoln  joined,  and  if  he  had  ever  entertained  fear 
for  his  own  safety  he  lost  it  at  this  time.  On  the  3d 
of  April,  unattended,  except  by  Admiral  Porter,  his 
little  son  Tad,  and  the  few  sailors  who  had  -rowed 
him  from  the  war-vessel  in  the  James  River,  he 
landed  and  walked  through  the  streets  to  Gen^'al 
Weitzel's  head-quarters  in  the  former  residence  of 
Jefferson  Davis  in  Richmond.  Here  he  met  several 
citizens,  and  afterwards  in  the  same  reckless  way 
rode  through  several  of  the  principal  streets.  On 
the  following  day  he  again  appeared  in  Richmond, 
this  time  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Vice-Presi- 
dent Johnson,  and  many  others. 

Owing  to  his  conversations  at  this  time  with 
repentant  rebels  he  sent  this  letter  to  General 
Weitzei : — 

"Head-quarters  Armies  of  the  United  States,  1 
"  City  Point,  April  6,  1865.        / 

"  Major-General  Weitzel,  Richmond,  Va. : — 

"  It  has  been  intimated  to  rae  that  the  gentlemen  who 

have  acted  as   the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  in    support   of 

the  Rebellion,    may   now  desire  to  assemble  at  Richmond 


572  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

and  take  measures  to  withdraw  the  Virginia  troops  and 
other  support  from  resistance  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment. If  they  attempt  it,  give  them  permission  and  pro- 
tection, until,  if  at  all,  they  attempt  some  action  hostile  to 
the  United  States,  in  which  case  you  will  notify  them, 
give  them  reasonable  time  to  leave,  and  at  the  end  of  which 
time  arrest  any  who  remain. 

"  Allow  Judge  Campbell  to  see  this,  but  do  not  make 
it  public.  Yours,  etc.,  A.  Lincoln." 

Not  only  Mr.  Lincoln's  disposition  to  treat  the 
rebels  with  extreme  leniency  is  here  foreshadowed, 
but  also  his  plan  of  reconstruction.  Both  his  dis- 
position and  plan  are  more  fully  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing speech,  the  last  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  made,  delivered 
to  a  vast  assemblage  of  light-hearted  and  happy 
people  in  front  of  the  Executive  Mansion  in  Wash- 
ington on  the  11th  of  April : — 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  LAST  SPEECH. 

"  We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness  of 
heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,,  and  the 
surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent  army,  give  hope  of  a  right- 
ous  and  speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression  can  not  be  re- 
strained. In  the  midst  of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all 
blessings  flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national 
thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and  Avill  be  duly  promulgated. 
Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part  gives  us  the  cause  of  rejoic- 
ing be  overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  parceled  out  with 
others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure 
of  transmitting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you  ;  but  no  part  of 
the  honor,  for  plan  or  execution,  is  mine.  To  General  Grant, 
his  skillful  officers  and  brave  men  all  belongs.  The  gallant 
navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not  in  reach  to  take  active  part. 

"By  these  recent  successes,  the  reinauguration  of  the  na- 
tional authority,  reconstruction,  which  has  had  a  large  share  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  573 

thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed  much  more  closely  upon  our 
attention.  It  is  fraught  with  great  difficulty.  Unlike  the  case 
of  a  war  between  independent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized 
organ  for  us  to  treat  with.  No  man  has  authority  to  give  up 
the  Rebellion  for  any  other  man.  AVe  simply  must  begin  with 
and  mold  from  disorganized  and  discordant  elements.  Nor  is  it 
a  small  additional  embarrassment  that  we,  the  loyal  people, 
differ  among  ourselves  as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  means  of 
reconstruction. 

"  As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the  reports  of 
attacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by  that  to 
which  I  can  not  properly  offer  an  answer.  In  spite  of  this 
precaution,  however,  it  comes  to  my  knowledge  that  I  am  much 
censured  from  some  supposed  agency  in  setting  up  and  seeking 
to  sustain  the  new  State  Government  of  Louisiana.  In  this  I 
have  done  just  so  much  as,  and  no  more,  than  the  public  knows. 
In  the  annual  message  of  December,  1863,  and  accompanying 
proclamation,  I  presented  a  plan  of  reconstruction  (as  the 
phrase  goes),  which  I  promised,  if  adopted  by  any  State,  should 
be  acceptable  to,  and  sustained  by,  the  Executive  Government 
of  the  Nation.  I  distinctly  stated  that  this  was  not  the  only 
plan  which  might  possibly  be  acceptable;  and  I  also  distinctly 
protested  that  the  Executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or 
whether  members  should  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Congress  from 
such  States.  This  plan  was,  in  advance,  submitted  to  the  then 
Cabinet,  and  distinctly  approved  by  every  member  of  it.  One 
of  them  suggested  that  I  should  then,  and  in  that  connection, 
apply  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  the  theretofore  ex- 
cepted parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana  ;  that  I  should  drop 
the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship  for  freed  peoj)le,  and  that 
I  should  omit  the  protest  against  my  own  power,  in  regard  to 
the  admission  of  members  of  Congress,  but  even  he  approved 
every  part  and  parcel  of  the  plan  which  has  since  been  em- 
ployed or  touched  by  the  action  of  Louisiana. 

"The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  emancipation 
for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the  Proclamation  to  the 
part  previously  excepted.  It  does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for 
freed  people,  and  it  is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise, 
about   the  admission  of  members   to  Congress.     So  that,  as  it 


574  LIFK  AND  TIMES  OF 

applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  tbe  Cabinet  fully  ap- 
proved the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Congress,  and  I  received 
many  commendations  of  the  plan,  written  and  verbal;  and  not 
a  single  objection  to  it,  from  any  professed  emancipationist, 
came  to  my  knowledge,  until  after  the  news  reached  Washing- 
ton that  the  people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in  accord- 
ance with  it.  From  about  July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded 
with  different  persons,  supposed  to  be  interested,  seeking  a  re- 
construction of  the  State  government  for  Louisiana.  When 
the  message  of  1863,  with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached 
New  Orleans,  General  Banks  wrote  me  he  was  confident  that 
the  people,  with  his  military  co-operation,  would  reconstruct 
substantially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  him,  and  some  of  them,  to 
try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the  result  is  known.  Such  only  has 
been  my  agency  in  getting  up  the  Louisiana  government.  As 
to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before  stated.  But  as 
bad  promises  are  better  broken  than  kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a 
bad  promise,  and  break  it  whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that 
keeping  it  is  adverse  to  the  public  interest.  But  I  have  not 
yet  been  so  convinced. 

"I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be 
an  able  one,  in  which  the  writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind 
lias  not  seemed  to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether 
the  seceded  States,  so-called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it. 
It  would,  perhaps,  add  astonishment  to  his  regret  were  he  to 
learn  that,  since  I  have  found  professed  Union  men  endeavoring 
to  make  that  question,  I  have  purposely  forborne  any  public  ex- 
pression upon  it.  As  appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been, 
nor  yet  is,  a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion  of 
it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial,  could  have  no 
effect  other  than  the  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our  friends. 
As  yet,  whatever  it  may  hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad 
as  the  basis  of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all — a 
merely  pernicious  abstraction.  We  all  agree  that  the  seceded 
States,  so-called,  are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  Government,  civil  and  mili- 
tary, in  regard  to  those  States,  is  to  again  get  them  into  that  proper 
practical  relation.  I  believe  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact 
easier  to  do  this  without  deciding,  or  even  considering,  whether 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  575 

these  States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it. 
Finding  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  imma- 
terial whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in 
doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the  proper  practical  rela- 
tions between  these  States  aud  the  Union,  and  each  forever 
after  innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether,  in  doing  tlie 
acts,  he  brought  the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only 
gave  them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it. 

"The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on  which  the  uew^ 
Louisiana  government  rests,  would  be  more  satisfactory  to  all 
if  it  contained  fifty,  thirty,  or  even  twenty  thousand,  instead  of 
only  about  twelve  thousand,  as  it  really  does.  It  is  also  unsat- 
isfactory to  some  that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the 
colored  man.  I  would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred 
on  the  very  intelligent,  and  those  who  serve  our  cause  as  sol- 
diers. Still  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana  govern- 
ment, as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable.  The  question 
is,  '  Will  it  be  wiser,  to  take  it  as  it  is,  and  help  to  improve 
it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it?'  'Can  Louisiana  be  brought 
into  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustain- 
ing or  by  discarding  her  new  State  government?' 

"Some  twelve  thousand  voters,  in  the  heretofore  Slave  State 
of  Louisiana,  have  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to 
be  the  rightful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections,  or- 
ganized a  State  government,  adopted  a  Free  State  constitution, 
giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally  to  black  aud  white, 
and  empowering  the  Legislature  to  confer  the  elective  franchise 
upon  the  colored  man.  Their  Legislature  has  already  voted  to 
ratify  the  Constitutional  amendment  recently  passed  by  Con- 
gress, abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  Nation.  These  twelve 
thousand  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union,  and 
to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  States — committed  to  the  very 
things  and  nearly  all  the  things  the  Nation  wants;  and  they  ask 
the  Nation's  recognition  and  its  assistance  to  make  good  that  com- 
mittal. Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  utmost 
to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect,  say  to  the 
white  men :  '  You  are  worthless,  or  worse ;  we  will  neither  help 
you,  nor  be  helped  by  you.'  To  the  blacks  we  say :  '  This  cup 
of  Liberty  which  these,  your  old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips,  we 


576  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

will  dash  from  you,  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering 
the  spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  undefined 
when,  where,  and  how.'  If  this  course,  discouraging  and  par- 
alyzing both  black  and  white,  has  any  tendency  to  bring  Louis- 
iana into  proper  practical  relations  with  the  Union,  I  have,  so 
far,  been  unable  to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recog- 
nize and  sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisiana,  the  converse 
of  all  this  is  made  true. 

"  We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the  twelve 
thousand  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  prose- 
lyte for  it,  and  fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen 
it  to  a  complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  seeing  all 
united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy,  and  dar- 
ins:  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires  the  elective  fran- 
chise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the  already 
advanced  steps  towards  it,  than  by  running  backward  over 
them  ?  Concede  that  the  new  government  of  Louisiana  is  only 
to  what  it  should  be  as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner 
have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 
(Laughter.)  Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  National  Con- 
stitution. To  meet  this  proposition,  it  has  been  argued  that  no 
more  than  three-fourths  of  those  States,  which  have  not  at- 
tempted secession,  are  necessary  to  validly  ratify  the  amend- 
ment. I  do  not  commit  myself  against  this,  further  than  to  say 
that  such  a  ratifiation  Avould  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be 
persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three-fourths  of 
all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and  unquestionable. 

"I  repeat  the  question:  'Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into 
proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining 
or  by  discarding  her  new  State  government?'  What  has  been 
said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And 
yet  so  great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such 
important  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and, 
withal,  so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case,  that  no 
exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  prescribed  as  to  de- 
tails and  collaterals.  Such  exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  would 
surely  become  a  new  entanglement.  Important  principles  may, 
and  must,  be  inflexible. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  577 

"In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be  my 
duty  to  make  some  new  announcement  to  the  people  of  the 
South.  I  am  considering,  and  shall  not  fail  to  act,  when  sat- 
isfied that  action  will  be  proper." 

On  the  same  day  the  President  issued  a  proclama- 
tion opening  the  ports  of  the  South  to  general  com- 
merce, and  on  the  13th,  an  order  from  the  War  De- 
partment put  a  stop  to  all  drafting  and  recruiting,  to 
remove  restrictions  on  trade,  and  generally  compress 
the  plans  for  continuing  the  war. 

The  Cabinet  was  now  in  complete  accord  with 
the  President  in  lenient  feeling  toward  the  South, 
and  in  general  views  of  reconstruction,  and  was  thus 
composed :  Wm.  H.  Seward,  Edwin  M.  Stanton, 
Gideon  Welles,  Wm.  Dennison,  J.  P.  Usher  (who 
was  to  give  place  to  James  Harlan  in  May),  and 
James  Speed,  who  had  in.  November,  1864,  taken  the 
place  of  Judge  Bates,  as  Attorney-General.  On  the 
14th,  the  President  called  a  Cabinet  meeting  which 
was  very  harmonious,  in  view  of  the  immediate  end- 
ing of  the  wnr,  there  being  no  diversity  of  opinion 
on  the  subjectof  reconstruction,  now  for  the  first  time 
appearing  as  a  matter  of  great  consequence.  Mr. 
Seward  was  not  at  this  meeting,  owing  to  severe 
wounds  received  from  a  fall  from  his  buggy.  Mr. 
Carpenter,  in  his  "  Six  Months  in  the  White  House," 
says  of  this  last  Cabinet  meeting : — 

"  General  Grant  was  present,  and  during  a  lull  in  the 
discussion  the  President  turned  to  him  and  asked  if  he 
had  heard  from  General  Sherman.  General  Grant  replied 
that  he  had  not,  but  was  in  hourly  expectation  of  receiv- 

37— Q 


578  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ing  dispatches  from  him  announcing  the  surrender  of 
Johnston. 

"'Well/  said  the  President,  'you  will  hear  very  soon 
now,  and  the  news  will  be  important.' 

"'Why  do  you  think  so?'  said  the  General. 

" '  Because,'  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  '  I  had  a  dream  last 
night;  and  ever  since  the  war  began,  I  have  invariably  had 
the  same  dream  before  any  important  military  event  oc- 
curred.' He  then  instanced  Bull  Run,  Antietam,  Gettys- 
burg, etc.,  and  said  that  before  each  of  these  events,  he 
had  had  the  same  dream  ;  and  turning  to  Secretary  Welles, 
said:  'It  is  in  your  line,  too,  Mr,  Welles.  The  dream  is, 
that  I  saw  a  ship  sailing  very  rapidly ;  and  I  am  sure  that 
it  portends  some  important  national  event.'" 

In  the  ordinary  way  of  viewing  such  things,  this 
dreaming  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  would  go  under  the  head 
of  superstition.  It  would  be  difficult  to  associate 
such  superstition  with  the  irreligion,  which  some,  at 
all  stages  of  his  life,  have  attributed  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 
But  all  persons  will  agree  that  in  giving  his  dreams 
in  any  manner,  let  alone  with  the  air  of  such  con- 
fidence, to  his  Cabinet,  Mr.  Lincoln  presents  a  new 
and  singular  spectacle  in  the  conduct  of  Presidents. 
That  his  dream  now  pointed  to  himself,  if  to  any- 
thing, Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  seem  to  have  any  suspi- 
cion, and  since  he  had  entered  upon  his  office  he  had 
not  felt  so  free  and  light-hearted  as  on  that  14th 
of  April. 

To  his  wife  he  had  said :  "  And  well  I  may  feel 
so,  Mary,  for  I  consider  this  day  the  war  has  come  to 
a  close.  We  must  be  more  cheerful  in  the  future ; 
between  the  war  and  the  loss  of  our  darling  Willie, 
we  have  been  very  miserable." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  579 

Among  the  other  ways  Mr.  Lincoln  took  of  ex- 
hibiting his  lightness  of  spirit  at  this  time,  was  his  ar- 
rangement to  be  present  at  a  performance  at  Ford's 
Theater.  It  is,  perhaps,  unnecessary  to  stop  to  con- 
sider the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  a  President 
ever  visiting  such  a  place,  let  alone  in  times  of  such 
national  distress.  And  it  would  be  folly  to  intimate 
that  the  result  might  not  have  been  the  same,  if  the 
President  had  been  at  the  White  House,  the  Soldiers' 
Home,  or  any  place  else,  as  unprotected  as  he  chose 
to  go,  when  threats  of  assassination  were  reaching 
him  daily.  Still  there  remains  a  point  connected 
with  the  tragedy  of  the  night  of  the  14th  of  April 
which  may  not  be  passed  in  silence,  and  which  will 
ever  attiact  the  notice  of  the  careful  reader  of  his- 
tory, if  it  does  not  give  rise  to  a  sense  of  regret  or 
a  feeling  of  shame  in  the  American  people  and  the 
friends  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  even  viewing  them  from 
no  more  than  a  moral  elevation. 

The  place  to  die  is  of  no  less  importance  than 
that  in  which  we  are  born.  The  place  of  either  of 
these  events  may  seriously  affect  any  man's  post- 
humous reputation.  The  matter  at  issue  is  character, 
and  offices,  deeds,  degrees  of  civilization,  forms  of 
government  can  avail  little.  Simply  trace  the  case 
where  the  imngination  would  lead  !  From  mere  man 
nothing  can  drive  the  taint  of  place  or  circumstance. 
Only  a  God  could  be  born  in  a  manger  or  could  die 
on  a  cross. 

The  unwelcome  specter  of  Ford's  Theater  must 
ever  haunt  this   dreadful  tragedy,  mocking  the  ten- 


580  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

derest  and  strongest  memories  that  cling  around  the 
life  and  the  tomb  of  the  martyr.  Even  John  Quincy 
Adams,  with  his  passion  for  theater-going,  would  not 
have  chosen  to  bid  adieu  to  the  world  in  a  theater. 
What  pride  and  pleasure  there  is  in  the  eulogium, 
"He  died  at  his  post!" 

In  the  pressure  upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  life,  the  popular 
demands,  in  the  very  composition  of  his  character, 
those  may  seek  apologies  who  will;  I  hold  that  no 
truly  great  mind  is  so  limited,  so  circumscribed  in  its 
demands  for  outlet  or  recreation,  that  it  must  hunt  it 
at  doubtful  times  in  questionable  places.  To  such 
there  could  never  possibly  be  a  moment  or  an  occa- 
sion when  something  of  beauty  would  not  rise  up  a 
joy  forever. 

Early  in  the  day  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  attend  the  theater  that  night,  and  some  time 
after  eight  o'clock,  unaccompanied  except  by  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  Major  H.  R.  Rathbone,  and  Miss  Clara 
W.  Harris,  he  made  his  way  amidst  the  welcome 
greetings  of  the  densely  packed  audience,  to  the 
box  engaged  for  the  Presidential  party  on  the 
second  floor. 

General  Grant  was  now  much  sought  after  in 
Washington,  but  the  calm  and  unceremonious  soldier 
was  little  disposed  to  gratify  public  curiosity.  Many 
expected  to  see  him  by  the  President's  side  that 
night,  and  it  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  desire  that  they 
should  not  be  disappointed.  But  General  Grant  had 
business  elsewhere ;  and  other  persons  whom  the 
President  pressed  to   accompany  him  were  also  too 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  581 

much  occupied  with  more  essential,  desirable,  or  bet- 
ter things. 

At  a  quarter  past  ten  o'clock,  the  incarnate  fiend, 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  a  member  of  a  family  of  "actors," 
gained  access  to  the  President's  box  unnoticed  by  its 
occupants,  barred  the  door  after  him,  and,  drawing  a 
pistol,  shot  the  President,  the  ball  entering  the  back 
of  his  head.  Major  Rathbone,  unarmed,  at  once 
grappled  the  murderer  who  stabbed  him  in  the  arm 
near  the  shoulder,  and  breaking  away,  leaped  ten  or 
twelve  feet  to  the  stage,  crying,  '^/Sie  semper  t//rannisr 
and  waving  his  dagger  to  the  yet  confounded  audi- 
ence, shouted,  "The  South  is  avenged,"  or  something 
to  that  effect,  made  his  way  to  his  horse  in  the  street, 
and  escaped  to  sympathizing  friends  in  Maryland. 

After  he  was  shot,  Mr.  Lincoln  never  spoke  again. 
He  was  soon  afterwards  removed  to  a  house  across 
the  street,  where  at  twenty-two  minutes  past  seven 
o'clock  on  the  next  morning,  Saturday,  April  15, 
1865,  he  "  died."  Not  long  after  the  city  was 
startled  by  the  murder  at  the  theater,  the  report  went 
out  that  another  of  the  avengers  of  the  South  had 
made,  perhaps,  a  fatal  assault  on  the  Secretary  of 
State,  then  confined  to  his  bed  by  the  injuries  re- 
ceveid  in  the  fall  from  his  carriage.  The  air  was 
rife  with  stories  of  assassination,  all  feeling  of  secu- 
rity was  lost,  and  no  citizen  then  living  had  ever 
seen  so  dark  a  night  as  that  w^as  in  the  National 
Capital. 

The  tidings  of  the  murder  of  the  President  soon 
spread   this   darkness  over  the  whole  country ;  and. 


582  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

indeed,  the  civilized  world  stopped  aghast  at  the 
horrid  deed.  The  memories  of  that  Saturday  can 
never  pass  away.  Who  can  not  now  reproduce  the 
sad  picture?  All  business  was  suspended.  Men 
wandered  from  their  stores  and  shops;  farmers 
mounted  their  horses  and  rode  in  silence  to  town; 
hands  were  grasped  without  a  word;  the  tongue 
cleaved  to  the  roof  of  the  mouth;  strong  hearts 
gave  way  in  floods  of  bitter  tears.  0 !  it  was  the 
gloomiest  day  America  had  ever  seen !  "  I  saw  in 
that  day  more  of  the  human  heart  than  in  all  the 
rest  of  my  life."  So  said  Charles  Godfrey  Leland, 
and  so  may  every  man  say  who  then  lived. 

Soon  after  his  death  the  body  of  the  President 
was  removed  to  tlie  White  House,  embalmed,  and 
placed  in  the  "  Green  Room." 

On  Wednesday,  19th,  the  "funeral  services"  were 
performed  in  the  grand  "  East  Room "  of  the  Pres- 
ident's Mansion,  after  which  the  body  was  carried  to 
the  Capitol,  where  additional  thousands  filed  through 
the  great  rotunda  to  gain  a  last  look  at  the  pale, 
poor  face  so  recently  lit  up  by  Lincoln,  the  gentle, 
generous  spirit,  then  and  ever  since  more  loved  than 
any  other  President  of  the  United  States. 

Finally,  on  the  morning  of  the  21st,  the  coffin 
was  closed,  conveyed  to  the  railroad  depot,  and  on  a 
grand  funeral  train  started  on  its  long  journey  to 
Springfield,  Illinois.  At  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and,  indeed,  in  all  the  cities,  and  throughout 
the  country,  in  the  entire  journey,-  the  people  came 
in  mass  to  the  line  of  the  road  to  do  honor  to  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  ^  583 

martyred  President.  From  the  19th  of  April  till  the 
3d  of  May,  when  the  body  was  laid  in  "  Oak  Ridge 
Cemetery"  at  Springfield,  this  funeral  had  continued. 
Nothing  like  it  had  ever  been  seen  in  America;  per- 
haps, not  in  the  world. 


584  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

CHARACTER    AND     WORK     OF    ABRAHAM     LINCOLN— 

A  WONDERFUL  STUDY— THE  GREAT,  THE 

WISE,  AND  THE  GOOD. 

THE  end  had  come,  such  an  end  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  his  wife  had  dreamed  of,  if  not  expected,  for 
him.  The  public  had  passed  through  the  stages  of 
silent  and  demonstrative  grief,  of  anger  and  revenge, 
of  reasonable,  second  thought,  and  become  calm. 
Time,  the  healer,  has  made  this  no  exception  to  the 
rule,  and  long  ago  men  were  able,  perhaps,  to  henr 
what  was  of  good  report,  and  what  of  ill,  concerning 
this  singular  and  interesting  character.  Notwith- 
standing his  simplicity  and  plainness,  on  two  great 
points,  at  least,  men  were  deceived  in  Abrahan  Lin- 
coln. These  were  his  real  force  as  a  man  and  Presi- 
dent, and  his  religious  character  during  his  Presi- 
dency, and  at  the  end.  In  this  chapter  it  is  de- 
signed to  look  briefly  at  his  official  capacity  nnd  his 
general  traits.    - 

In  April,  1873,  Charles  Francis  Adams  delivered 
at  Albany,  a  *'  Memorial  Address  on  the  Life,  Charac- 
ter, and  Services  of  W.  H.  Seward."  In  this  address 
Mr.  Adams  committed  the  great  error  of  placing  Mr. 
Seward  virtually  at  the  head  of  the  Government  in 
Mr.   Lincoln's  Administration.      There    may    be    an 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  585 

apology  for  Mr.  Adams,  in  the  fact  that  his  error  was 
a  common  one  at  the  outset,  especially  with  New 
York  and  New  England  politicians.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Administration  Mr.  Adams  was  sent  as 
Minister  to  England,  where  he  remained  until  after 
Mr.  Lincoln's  death,  and  had  less  opportunity  than 
other  men,  perhaps,  to  correct  the  error  into  which 
he  had  fallen.  All  his  correspondence  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Government  was  with  Mr.  Seward, 
and  he  seemed  to  see  only  the  Secretary  of  State  in 
all  the  important  steps  of  the  Administration.  Still 
Mr.  Adams  was  able  to  know  better  than  his  address 
indicates,  and  his  opinions  of  Mr.  Lincoln  were  de- 
famatory. His  opinion  of  Mr.  Seward  was  colored 
beyond  proportion,  and  also  erroneous.  He  was  mis- 
taken in  the  character  of  both  men.  At  the  outset 
Mr.  Lincoln  shrank  from  comparing  his  inexperience 
in  public  affairs  with  the  long  service  of  some  of  the 
men  he  had  chosen  to  associate  with  him  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  affairs  of  the  Government,  and  it  is  un- 
doubtedly true  that  this  association  rendered  him 
more  deferential  towards  the  views  of  others.  He 
found  the  machinery  of  the  Government  too  compli- 
cate to  be  managed  by  one  man,  and  having  confi- 
dence in  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  he  was  glad  to 
rely  upon  them  for  the  performance  of  the  work  of 
the  Departments  over  which  they  presided.  And 
here  he  made  it  a  rule  not  to  interfere,  unless,  as 
the  responsible  head  of  all,  it  became  necessary  for 
him  to  do  so.  He  who  has  followed  with  any  care 
the  course  of  this  story  can  hfive  little  difficulty  in 


586  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

deciding  who  was  the  master.  If  Mr.  Seward's 
friends  deceived  themselves  about  this  matter,  it  was 
more  than  Mr.  Seward  did  after  the  mismanagement 
and  difficulties  surrounding  the  attempts  to  relieve 
Fort  Sumter.  Mr.  Seward  was  fond  of  keeping  up 
the  delusion  in  which  he  and  his  friends  had  started 
out,  but  he  was  erelong  mistaken  himself  about  his 
place  in  the  Administration.  And  Mr.  Adams  did 
him  a  great  injury  in  indicating  that  he  felt  another 
was  nominally  enjoying  the  honors  for  which  his 
wisdom  had  laid  the  foundation.  He  had  no  such 
feeling  toward  Mr.  Lincoln,  although  he  was  a  poli- 
tician, perhaps  in  all  that  term  ordinarily  implied. 

Mr.  Seward's  standing  with  the  President  was 
very  high,  and  not  unfrequently  his  judgment,  and 
not  Mr.  Lincoln's  inclination,  controlled  a  point  of 
conduct.  But  this  was  so  with  all  the  heads  of  De- 
partments, where  the  President  thought  the  circum- 
stances justified  his  confidence  and  deference,  and 
was  only  more  apparent  with  Mr.  Seward  owing  to 
the  more  general  nature  of  his  position  as  an  adviser. 

While  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom  differed  openly  with 
any  of  the  members  of  his  Cabinet,  he  often  treated 
their  most  serious  recommendations  with  a  story,  and 
never  quite  got  rid  of  his  disposition  to  look  upon 
their  opinions  lightly.  While  he  seldom  failed  to 
consult  them  on  important  matters,  some  of  his  most 
marked  steps  were  taken  before  they  were  aware  of 
what  was  coming,  or  without  being  able  to  assent  or 
protest.  No  very  small  part  of  his  countrymen  be- 
lieved Mr.  Lincoln  deficient  in  will-power,  and  it  is, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  587 

perhaps,  astonishing  that  in  his  Cabinet  this  opinion 
had  a  place.  Mr.  Carpenter  tells  this  story  of  a  con- 
versation he  had  with  Attorney- General  Bates  on 
this,  point : — 

"Referring  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  never-failing  fund  of  anec- 
dote, he  (Bates)  remarked  :  '  The  character  of  the  Presi- 
dent's mind  is  such  that  his  thought  habitually  takes  on 
this  form  of  illustration,  by  which  the  point  he  wishes  to 
enforce  is  invariably  brought  home  with  a  strength  and 
clearness  im.possible  in  hours  of  abstract  argument.  Mr. 
Lincoln,'  he  added,  'comes  very  near  being  a  perfect  man, 
according  to  my  ideal  of  manhood.  He  lacks  but  one 
thing.'  Looking  up  from  my  palette,  I  asked,  musingly, 
if  this  was  official  dignity  as  President.  *  No,'  replied 
Judge  Bates,  '  that  is  of  little  consequence.  His  deficiency 
is  in  the  element  of  will.  I  have  sometimes  told  him,  for 
instance,  that  he  was  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  par- 
doning power.  Why,  if  a  man  comes  to  him  with  a  touch- 
ing story,  his  judgment  is  almost  certain  to  be  affected 
by  it.  Should  the  applicant  be  a  woman,  a  wife,  a  mother, 
or  a  sister,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  her  tears,  if  nothing 
else,  are  sure  to  prevail.'" 

But,  Mr.  Lincoln  could  and  did  say  no  in  many 
of  these  cases  where  he  considered  there  was  some 
principle  at  stake,  or  something  beyond  the  mere  re- 
lief of  pain  or  trouble.  The  diversity  of  sentiment 
on  this  point  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  character  arose  less 
from  a  defect  in  him  than  from  the  defective  way  of 
viewing  the  case.  Is  there  any  man  now  so  fool- 
hardy as  to  maintain  that  Mr.  Lincoln  could  be  led, 
knowingly,  to  do  a  wrong,  in  his  mature  and  best  days  ? 
Where  principles  of  justice  and  right  were  concerned, 
no  man  was  firmer.     When  substance  was  at  stake, 


588  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  unalterable.  What  he  deemed  right, 
or  true,  or  good,  or  best,  he  supported  with  all  his 
might.  For  ways,  shadows,  manners,  non-essentials, 
he  did  not  care.  He  yielded.  Where  sentiment  or 
heart  was  the  actor  he  leaned  with  the  power  that 
ruled  the  moment.  Trifles  had  little  attraction  for 
him.  To  questions  of  substance,  of  moment,  of  truth, 
of  right,  to  genuine  principle,  he  hung  with  changless 
tenacity. 

On  his  way  to  Washington  in  1861  he  said  in 
Independence  Hall,  in  Philadelphia:  "I  have  said 
nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and,  if  it 
be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  die  by."  And  the 
principles  here  announced,  and  those  which  the  prog- 
ress of  events  caused  him  subsequently  to  adopt, 
did  actually  lead  to  his  death.  For  his  principles  he 
died.  What  American,  either  in  his  life  or  death, 
exhibited  a  more  potent  will,  a  more  unalterable 
devotion  to  principle?  To  view  him  among  prin- 
ciples and  essentials,  he  was  unbending  and  as  firm 
as  a  rock.  To  view  him  among  trifles,  customs, 
sufferings,  and  forms,  he  was  yielding  and  forgiving. 
In  the  realm  of  mercy  Abraham  Lincoln  was  among 
the  greatest  of  men. 

Mr.  Stanton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  had  desired 
to  withdraw  from  the  difficult  place  he  held  in  the 
Cabinet,  and  meant  to  do  so  when  he  could,  see  the 
time  had  come ;  accordingly  a  few  days  after  the  sur- 
render of  Lee,  he  presented  the  matter  to  the  Pres- 
ident. It  was  a  written  form  of  resignation,  in  which 
the  stern  War  Secretary  took  occasion  to  speak  in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  589 

the  warmest  terms  of  the  President's  kindness  to 
him,  and  of  his  own  appreciation  of  the  generous 
man  with  whom  he  had  been  associated.  Greatly 
affected  by  the  contents  of  the  paper,  Mr.  Lincoln 
tore  it  to  pieces,  and  threw  his  arms  around  the  Sec- 
retary, saying  as  he  did  so :  "  Stanton,  you  have 
been  a  good  friend  and  a  faithful  public  servant,  and 
it  is  not  for  you  to  say  when  you  will  no  longer  be 
needed  here."  Mr.  Carpenter,  who  relates  this  story, 
says  that  the  friends  present  shed  tears  over  the 
President's  demonstration.  This  severe-mannered, 
j)roud,  unyielding  man,  who  had  been  taken  into  his 
Cabinet,  had  learned  to  revere  his  power  and  ndmire 
his  character,  felt  his  loss  as  deeply  as  any  other  ^ 
man,  and  was,  perhaps,  as  much  disposed  to  avenge 
his  death.  When  the  generous  Chief  had  fallen,  he 
knelt  at  his  side  soliloquizing :  "  Am  I,  indeed,  left 
alone?  None  may  now  ever  know  or  tell  what  we 
have  suffered  together  in  the  Nation's  darkest  hours." 
When  the  Surgeon-General  said  to  him  that  there  was 
no  hope,  he  could  not  believe.  "No,  no.  General, 
no,  no !"  was  the  passionate  response  of  this  greatest 
of  American  War  Secretaries. 

But  dismissing  the  unanimous  Cabinet,  it  may  be 
well  to  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  opinions  of  two 
or  three  other  men,  among  the  hundreds  who  wrote 
and  talked.  George  Bancroft,  the  historian,  thus 
spoke  in  New  York : — 

"  Those  who  come  after  us  will  decide  how  much  of 
the  wonderful  results  of  his  public  career  is  due  to  his  own 
good  common  sense,  his  shrewd  sagacity,  readiness  of  wit, 


590  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

quick  interpretation  of  the  public  mind,  his  rare  combi- 
nation of  fixedness  and  pliancy,  his  steady  tendency  of 
purpose;  how  much  to  the  American  people,  who,  as  he 
walked  with  them  side  by  side,  inspired  him  with  their 
own  wisdom  and  energy;  and  how  much  to  the  overruling 
laws  of  the  moral  world,  by  which  the  selfishness  of  evil 
is  made  to  defeat  itself.  But  after  every  allowance,  it  will 
remain  that  members  of  the  Government  which  preceded 
his  Administration  opened  the  gates  of  treason,  and  he 
closed  them;  that  when  he  went  to  Washington  the  ground 
on  which  he  trod  shook  under  his  feet,  and  he  left  the  Re- 
public on  a  solid  foundation  ;  that  traitors  had  seized  pub- 
lic forts  and  arsenals,  and  he  recovered  them  for  the 
United  States,  to  whom  they  belonged  ;  that  the  Capitol, 
which  he  found  the  abode  of  slaves,  is  now  the  home  only 
of  the  free;  that  the  boundless  public  domain  which  was 
grasped  at,  and,  in  .a  great  measure,  held  for  the  diffusion 
of  slavery,  is  now  irrevocably  devoted  to  freedom  ;  that 
then  men  talked  a  jargon  of  a  balance  of  power  in  a  Re- 
public between  Slave  States  and  Free  States,  and  now  the 
foolish  words  are  blown  away  forever  by  the  breath  of 
Maryland,  Missouri,  and  Tennessee;  that  a  terrible  cloud 
of  political  heresy  rose  from  the  abyss,  threatening  to  hide 
the  light  of  the  sun,  and  under  its  darkness  a  rebellion 
was  rising  into  indefinable  proportions;  now  the  atmos- 
phere is  purer  than  ever  before,  and  the  insurrection  is 
vanishing  away ;  the  country  is  cast  into  another  mold,  and 
the  gigantic  system  of  wrong,  which  had  been  the  work 
of  more  than  two  centuries,  is  dashed  down,  we  hope  for- 
ever. And  as  to  himself  personally,  he  was  then  scoffed 
at  by  the  proud  as  unfit  for  his  station,  and  now,  against 
the  usage  of  later  years,  and  in  spite  of  numerous  compet- 
itors, he  was  the  unbiased  and  the  undoubted  choice  of 
the  American  people  for  a  second  term  of  service.  Through 
all  the  mad  business  of  treason  he  retained  the  sweetness 
of  a  most  placable  disposition  ;  and  the  slaughter  of  myr- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  591 

iads  of  the  best  on  the  battle-field,  and  the  more  terrible 
destruction  of  our  men  in  captivity  by  the  slow  torture  of 
exposure  and  starvation,  had  never  been  able  to  provoke 
him  into  harboring  one  vengeful  feeling  or  one  purpose 
of  cruelty." 

In  an  address  delivered  in  Boston,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson  said : — 

"A  plain  man  of  the  people,  extraordinary  fortune  at- 
tended him.  Lord  Bacon  says:  *  Manifest  virtues  procure 
reputation  ;  occult  ones,  fortune.'  He  offered  no  shining 
qualities  at  the  first  encounter;  he  did  not  offend  by  su- 
periority. He  had  a  face  and  manner  which  disarmed  sus- 
picion, which  inspired  confidence,  which  confirmed  good 
will.  He  was  a  man  without  vices.  He  had  a  strong 
sense  of  duty,  which  it  was  very  easy  for  him  to  obey. 
Then  he  had  what  farmers  call  a  long  head ;  was  excellent 
in  working  out  the  sum  for  himself;  in  arguing  his  case, 
and  convincing  you  fairly  and  firmly. 

"Then  it  turned  out  that  he  was  a  great  worker;  had 
prodigious  faculty  of  performance ;  worked  easily.  A 
good  worker  is  so  rare ;  everybody  has  some  disabling 
quality.  In  a  host  of  young  men  that  start  together,  and 
promise  so  many  briHiant  leaders  for  the  next  age,  each 
fails  on  trial;  one  by  bad  health,  one  by  conceit  or  by 
love  of  pleasure,  or  by  lethargy,  or  by  a  hasty  temper — 
each  has  some  disqualifying  fault  that  throws  him  out  of 
the  career.  But  this  man  was  sound  to  the  coi-e,  cheer- 
ful, persistent,  all  right  for  labor,  and  liked  nothing  so  well. 

"  Then  he  had  a  vast  good-nature,  which  made  him 
tolerant  and  accessible  to  all;  fair-minded,  leaning  to  the 
claim  of  the  petitioner;  affable,  and  not  sensible  to  the 
affliction  which  the  innumerable  visits  paid  -to  him,  when 
President,  would  have  brought  to  any  one  else.  And 
how  this  good-nature  became  a  noble  humanity,  in  many 
a  tragic  case  which  the  events  of  the  war  brought  to  him, 


592  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

every  one  will  remember,  and  with  what  increasing  ten- 
derness he  dealt,  when  a  whole  race  was  thrown  on  his 
compassion.  The  poor  negro  said  of  him,  on  an  impres- 
sive occasion,  'Massa  Linkura  am  everywhere.' 

"  Then  his  broad  good-humor,  running  easily  into  joc- 
ular talk,  in  which  he  delighted,  and  in  which  he  excelled, 
was  a  rich  gift  to  this  wise  man.  It  enabled  him  to  keep 
his  secret,  to  meet  every  kind  of  man  and  every  rank  in 
society,  to  take  off  the  edge  of  the  severest  decisions  to 
mask  his  own  purpose  and  sound  his  companion,  and  to 
catch  with  true  instinct  the  temper  of  every  company  he 
addressed.  And,  more  than  all,  it  is  to  a  man  of  severe 
labor,  in  anxious  and  exhausting  crises,  the  natural  re- 
storative, good  as  sleep,  and  is  the  protection  of  the  over- 
driven brain  against  rancor  and  insanity. 

"  He  is  the  author  of  a  multitude  of  good  sayings,  so 
disguised  as  pleasantries  that  it  is  certain  they  had  no 
reputation  at  first  but  as  jests  ;  and  only  later,  by  the  very 
acceptance  and  adoption  they  find  in  the  mouths  of  mill- 
ions, turn  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the  hour.  I  am  sure 
if  this  man  had  ruled  in  a  period  of  less  facility  of  print- 
ing, he  would  have  become  mythological  in  a  very  few 
years,  like  ^sop,  or  Pilpay,  or  one  of  the  Seven  Wise 
Masters,  by  his  fables  and  proverbs. 

"  But  the  weight  and  penetration  of  many  passages  in 
his  letters,  messages,  and  speeches,  hidden  now  by  the  very 
closeness  of  their  application  to  the  moment,  are  destined 
hereafter  to  a  wide  fame.  AVhat  pregnant  definitions; 
what  unerring  common  sense  ;  what  foresight,  and  on  great 
occasions,  what  lofty,  and  more  than  national,  what  humane 
tone !  His  brief  speech  at  Gettysburg  will  not  easily  be 
surpassed  by  words  on  any  recorded  occasion 

"  It  can  not  be  said  there  is  any  exaggeration  of  his 
worth.  If  ever  a  rhan  was  fairly  tested,  he  was.  There 
was  no  lack  of  resistance,  nor  of  slander,  nor  of  ridicule. 
The  times  have  allowed  no  State  secrets;  the  Nation  has 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  593 

J 

been  in  such  a  ferment,  such  multitudes  had  to  be  trusted, 
that  no  secret  could  be  kept.  Every  door  was  ajar,  and 
we  knew  all  that  befell. 

"  Then  what  an  occasion  was  the  whirlwind  of  the  war! 
Here  was  place  for  no  holiday  magistrate,  no  fair-weather 
sailor;  the  new  pilot  was  hurried  to  the  helm  in  a  tor- 
nado. In  four  years — the  four  years  of  battle  days — his 
endurance,  his  fertility  of  resources,  his  magnanimity, 
were  sorely  tried  and  never  found  wanting. 

"There,  by  his  courage,  his  justice,  his  even  temper, 
his  fertile  counsel,  his  humanity,  he  stood  an  heroic  figure 
in  the  center  of  an  heroic  epoch.  He  is  the  true  history 
of  the  American  people  in  his  time.  Step  by  step  he 
walked  before  them;  slow  with  their  slowness;  quicken- 
ing his  march  by  theirs;  the  true  representative  of  this 
continent;  an  entirely  public  man;  father  of  his  country; 
the  pulse  of  twenty  millions  throbbing  in  his  heart,  the 
thought  of  their  minds  articulated  by  his  tongue." 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland  says :  "  Whatever  the  de- 
fects of  Lincoln's  character  were,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  there  was  ever  so  great  a  man  who  was,  on 
the  whole,  so  good."  The  same  writer  also  says  of 
Mr.  Lincoln:  "Born  to  extreme  poverty,  and  with 
fewer  opportunities  for  culture  than  are  open  to  any 
British  peasant,  he  succeeded,  by  sheer  perseverance 
and  determination,  in  making  himself  a  land-surveyor, 
a  lawyer,  a  politician,  and  a  President." 

Thus  men  plant  standards  of  judgment,  and  the 
world  follows  where  inclination  directs.  Neither 
greatness  nor  goodness  did  Mr.  Lincoln  ever  claim, 
and,  perhaps,  few  men  who  have  arisen  to  distinc- 
tion were  more  thoroughly  and  constantly  pushed 
and   borne  forward  by  their  friends   at  every  step 

38— Q 


594  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

than  was  he.  In  common  parlance ,  in  the  uncritical, 
loose,  every-day  ways  of  speaking,  Mr.  Lincoln  was, 
perhaps,  both  great  and  good.  But  really  how  few 
and  far  between  are  the  tests  under  which  any  man 
may  appear  great  and  good!  How  few  men,  in  all 
our  history,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  have  been 
able  to  stand  these  tests! 

It  is  not  the  design  here  to  bring  in  review,  es- 
pecially, those  acts  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  which  may 
or  may  not  accurately  be  deemed  great  or  good ;  the 
patient  reader  of  these  volumes  will  not  find  want- 
ing many  details  in  the  career  of  this  interesting 
character,  nor  will  he  be  able  to  complain,  perhaps, 
of  a  lack  of  disposition  in  the  author  to  throw  the 
best  deeds  into  the  best  possible  light.  One  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  distinguishing  traits  was  story-telling,  and 
in  that  it  will  not,  probably,  be  claimed  there  were 
any  traces  of  greatness.  He  would  travel  long  dis- 
tances to  hear  or  tell  stories,  and  he  thought  this 
faculty  of  great  service  to  him.  In  this  he  was, 
perhaps,  not  mistaken.  He  told  stories,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  and  sometimes  they  were  offens- 
ive to  men  who  felt  that  their  own  moods  were  not 
so  trifling,  or  that  he  did  not  understand  the  demands 
of  his  office  and  the  times. 

In  his  earlier  days,  before  he  reached  the  Pres- 
idency, many  of  his  stories  were  lacking  in  some  of 
the  elements  of  purity,  but  there  is  not  a  shadow 
of  evidence  that  he  ever  liked  them  for  their  vulgar- 
ity. It  was  because  they  so  pertinently  met  the 
case  in  hand.     It  was  the  unanswerable  keenness  in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  595 

them,  and  not  the  vulgarity,  which  pleased  him.  The 
point  is  not  a  difficult  one,  and  even  men  without 
wit  can  appreciate  it.  Between  Mr.  Lincoln's  coarser 
stories  and  his  personal  habits  there  was  no  connec- 
tion. One  did  not  point  to  the  other.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  find  a  man  whose  social  and  private  life 
was  more  absolutely  clean  and  pure,  in  every  con- 
ceivable sense  of  the  term,  than  that  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  at  all  stages  of  his  career.  In  him  personal 
and  social  cleanness  was  not  inconsistent  with  ques- 
tionable story-telling.  It  would  not  be  safe  to  say, 
perhaps,  that  the  majority  of  men  could  be  secure 
in  imitating  him  in  this  practice,  and  here  may  be 
caught  a  glimpse  of  his  superiority.  He  made  va- 
rious uses  of  his  stories,  and,  in  some  particulars, 
they  seemed  to  serve  him  well  even  as  President. 
When  he  would  avoid  a  difficult  question,  or  a  direct 
answer,  or  one  for  which  he  was  not  prepared,  or 
which  he  should  not  make  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  or  times,  he  was  sure  to  be  reminded  of  a 
story,  and  this  served  to  relieve  him  at  the  moment. 
His  story-telling  often,  too,  relieved  him  of  the 
weight  of  anxiety  which  rested  upon  him,  and  this, 
those  who  knew  him  best,  finally  came  to  understand 
and  appreciate.  He  was  not  an  original  story-teller. 
That  is,  his  stories  were  mainly  second-handed;  he 
did  not  invent  them.  It  is  a  mistake  to  say  that  he 
drew  on  his  imagnation  for  many  of  his  stories. 
Even  this  species  of  falsity  would  not  have  been 
tolerable  to  him.  He  was  a  truth-teller  before  he 
was  a  story-teller.     He  adapted  many  of  his  stories 


596  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  the  occasion  and  circumstances,  but  if  he  manu- 
factured any  of  them,  it  was  from  facts  and  incidents 
suited  to  the  case.  Several  different  collections  of 
his  stories  have  been  published,  and  many  have  been 
attributed  to  him  which  he  never  told. 

In  1854,  or  thereabouts,  Mr.  Lincoln  joined  a 
temperance  society,  but  he  did  not  attend  its  meet- 
ings, and  although  he  hated  whisky  he  was  never  in- 
clined to  make  a  fuss  about  it.  He  did  not  uphold 
temper.'ince  or  sumptuary  legislation,  and  was  not  in 
this  respect  consistent  with  his  own  practices.  He  did 
not  use  tobacco  in  any  form,  or  have  any  other  un- 
clean habits,  nor  indulge  in  any  sensual  extremes, 

Mr.  Lincoln's  thirst  was  for  fame.  This  was  the 
all-absorbing  passion  of  his  life.  In  his  unattractive 
boyhood  he  had  dreamed  of  it,  and  all  through  the 
after  struggles  which  carried  him  to  the  pinnacle,  it 
was  the  source  of  his  inspiration.  He  yearned  for 
position,  and  liked  to  be  honored.  He  thought  ev- 
erything, and  everybody  wrong  that  came  across  his 
way  to  distinction.  Everything  he  did,  no  matter 
how  trifling,  pointed  to  his  own  advancement  in  pub- 
lic fjivor.  His  day  and  night  dream  was  of  himself 
and  his  glory.  This  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  great  fiult, 
although  it  was  not  without  mitigating  conditions. 
He  fully  believed  the  rond  to  fame  lay  through  a 
life  of  certain  supreme  uses,  and  in  devotion  to  truth 
and  justice.  The  fame  he  desired  was  to  be  founded 
among  these  things.  Mr.  Lincoln  never  could  have 
separated  fame  from  a  life  of  right  deeds,  such  as 
his  moral  sense  led  him  to  believe  men  should  admire; 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  597 

nor  could  he  have  associated  it  with  acts  not  bene- 
ficial to  his  race.  When  he  had  gained  the  Presidency, 
he  had  reached  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  his 
dream,  and  a  change  came  over  the  nature  of  his  strug- 
gle for  fame.  After  a  time  he  found  what  he  had 
never  before  possessed,  and  this  corrected  his  strong 
•vein  of  selfishness,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  chapter  on 
his  religion.  If  his  earlier  public  life  had  been 
spent  largely  in  his  own  interests,  his  last  years 
were  devoted  to  the  good  of  the  human  family  and 
his  country. 

"Mr.  President"  now  grated  harshly  on  his  ear. 
To  his  friends  he  said,  sometimes  :  ''  Call  me  Lincoln, 
and  I'll  never  tell  that  the  rules  of  etiquette  were 
broken."  The  President's  Mansion  he  spoke  of  as 
"Here"  or  "This  place,"  his  business  or  official  room 
he  called  the  "Shop,"  and  the  President's  room  at 
the  Capitol,  he  was  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  "  The 
room  they  call  the  President's."  ^  No  man  was  now 
considered  in  his  way.  He  threw  the  responsibility 
of  the  various  departments  on  his  Cabinet  Ministers, 
and  all  the  honor  there  was  in  the  positions  they 
held  he  desired  them  to  have.  He  interfered  only 
where  he  felt  that  he  should  do  so,  being  responsi- 
ble for  the  whole,  and  often  he  assumed  the  public 
censure  when  it  should  have  rested  on  other  shoul- 
ders. To  the  man  who  was  said  to  have  spurned 
him  as  a  lawyer,  he  became  warmly  attached,  more 
than  to  any  member  of  his  council,  and  no  greater 
display  of  will  power  could  have  been  possible  than 
the  devotion  with  which  he   hung  to   all   of  these 


598  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

men  amidst  the  public  cry  of  distrust,  and  in  favor 
of  removal.  No  wonder  Mr.  Seward  would  say  that 
President  Lincoln  was  the  best  man  he  ever  knew. 
He  gave  him  every  opportunity  to  gain  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  people.  When  he  did  not  want  to 
make  a  speech,  as  was  usually  the  case,  he  would  say : 
"  Seward,  go  out  and  give  them  some  of  your  poetry."* 
He  would  have  stood  out  of  the  road  to  the  Pres- 
idency for  any  of  them.  To  the  aspiring  generals 
he  only  said,  Do  something,  fight  great  battles,  whip 
the  rebels,  save  the  country,  and  the  people  will 
take  care  of  you;  you  shall  be  President,  shall  de- 
serve to  be;  and  he  was  ready  to  throw  up  his  hat 
and  push  them.  For  the  last  two  years  the  whole 
burden  of  his  life  was,  "  What  I  do  or  forbear,  I  do 
or  forbear  because  I  believe  it  best  for  the  country." 
He  stood  in  no  man's  way.  He  had  reached  the 
goal,  and  although  at  times,  as  he  saw  the  power  of 
the  Rebellion  giving  away,  he  had  gleams  of  a  sun- 
shiny end  to  his  long  Administration,  in  which  he 
would  be  happier  thnn  he  had  been,  yet  he  was  ever 
recurring  to  his  old  dream  of  fate.  "He  never  could 
be  glad  again,"  was  a  feeling  he  could  not  always 
shake  off,  and  this  aided  in  bending  his  form,  sil- 
vering his  hair,  and  deepening  the  furrows  in  his 
wrinkled  face. 

In  Mr.  Lincoln's  dream  of  power,  success,  honor, 
there  had  always  been  a  final  scene  of  misfortune  or 
death  to  him.  The  gory  specter  always  stood  at  the 
side  of  the  angel  of  glory.  At  first  this  had  been 
manifest  destiny,  at  last  it  was  the  finger  of  Provi- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  599 

dence.  He  was,  in  a  measure,  reconciled.  He  wanted 
no  protection,  no  guards.  Such  things  were  not  dem- 
ocratic; and  then,  he  would  certainly  end  the  work 
he  had  to  do.  Whatever  change  for  the  better  came 
over  his  religious  faith,  his  imagination  was  still  sick 
and  distorted.  In  the  picture  there  were  two  ends, 
a  good  one  and  a  bad  one. 

But  had  he  any  grounds  for  such  a  scheme  of 
life  and  death  for  himself  more  than  most  other 
men,  even  the  most  ordinary  of  them?  From  the 
day  he  set  his  foot  in  the  settlement  at  New  Salem 
to  the  night  of  his  assassination,  he  had  no  cause  to 
"  drip  sorrow  from  his  steps,"  as  Mr.  Herndon  says 
of  him.  He  had  no  cause  for  anything  but  joy  and 
blessing.  Everything  that  occurred  to  him  should 
have  given  him  elasticity  and  vigor  in  his  wnlk  be- 
fore the  world.  His  face  should  have  shone  like 
the  sun.  His  successes  were  wonderful.  They  were 
wonderful  to  himself.  Friends  stood  thick  on  all 
sides  of  him.  Their  hands  were  always  extended  to 
help  him.  They  were  fascinated  with  him,  while  he 
mainly  appeared  to  think  of  and  labor  for  himself. 
He  thought  of  going  up  himself,  and  seemed  to  care 
little  to  see  others  going.  He  seldom  gave  a  help- 
ing hand,  and  those  who  had  and  those  who  had  not 
he  treated  alike.  The  good  that  others  did  for  him 
he  forgot  in  thinking  of  the  good  they  ought  to  do 
him.  If  he  once  thanked  them  he  never  thought  of 
it  again.  Good  deeds  deserved  nothing  at  his  hands ; 
bad  ones  he  absolutely  despised.  Even  Dennis 
Hanks  suspected  him  of  hypocrisy,  but  was  gener- 


600  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

ous  enough  to  say  that  he  might  be  mistaken  about 
it.     And  Dennis  was  mistaken. 

Many  things  to  Lincoln  were  without  substance, 
and  he  could  not  like  them.      He  found  no  delight 
in  what  suited  narrow,  little  minds.     So,  after  1850, 
or  even  before,  he  took  little  or  no  interest  in  local 
politics.      He    cared    little   who   was    elected.      The 
small  things  of  the  community  barely  deserved  his 
notice.     There  was  no  great  principle  in  any  of  these 
things.     At  home  in  Illinois  he  was  not  a  charitable 
man,   barely   mentnlly  so.      He   gave   nothing    sys- 
tematically, even  when  he  could.    Hardly  did  he  give 
his  moral  support  to  the  building  of  the  community. 
Science,  education,  arts,  general  progress,  were  not 
themes  to   him.      He  seldom  talked  of  them.      His 
world  was  politics,  and   he   was  the   center  of  that 
world.    But  he  was  no  demagogue.    He  went  straight 
forward.     When  he  was  once  a  Whig  he  was  always  a 
Whig.     In  his  " House-divided-against-itself  Speech" 
he   took  his   grand   stand,  and   from   this   he   never 
swerved.     In  his  poHtical  scheme  justice  and   right 
were  absolute,  and  honesty  was  his  religion. 

He  could  never  take  what  did  not  belong  to  him, 
and  was  ever  slow  to  receive  the  homage  and  praise 
he  had  appeared  to  prize  above  everything  else.  In 
the  matter  of  honesty,  however,  Mr.  Lincoln  was, 
perhaps,  not  perfect.  While  he  took  nothino;  from 
men  which  they  claimed  as  their  own,  he  neglected 
to  give  them  what  they  had  a  right  to  expect,  a 
hearty  return  of  love,  sympathy,  help,  cheerfulness, 
and  contentment.     His  sadness  was,  to  some  extent. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  601 

inherited,  but  it  was  not  incurable.  The  world  has 
a  right  to  expect  cheerful  countenances,  and  manly 
words  and  steps.  What  right  has  any  man  to  burden 
and  sadden  the  world  with  his  little  sorrows?  The 
ills  of  one  man  are  not  to  be  held  against  those  of 
the  world.  Mr.  Lincoln's  sorrows  were  baseless,  and 
had  they  been  real,  he  had  no  right  to  make  them 
the  property  of  other  people.  A  brave,  wise,  good,, 
and  unselfish  man,  strictly  speaking,  would  never  do 
such  a  thing.  One  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  took  this 
story  from  his  mouth  : — 

"It  was  just  after  my  election  in  1860,  when  the  news 
had  been  coming  in  thick  and  fast  all  day,  and  there  had 
been  a  great  '  Hurrah,  boys !'  so  that  I  was  well  tired  out, 
and  went  home  to  rest,  throwing  myself  down  on  a  lounge 
in  my  chamber.  Opposite  where  I  lay  was  a  bureau,  with 
a  swinging-glass  upon  it,  and  looking  in  that  glass,  I  saw 
myself  reflected,  nearly  at  full  length ;  but  my  face  I  no- 
ticed had  two  separate  and  distinct  images,  the  tip  of  the 
nose  of  one  being  about  three  inches  from  the  tip  of  the 
other.  I  was  a  little  bothered,  perhaps  startled,  and  got 
up  and  looked  in  the  glass,  but  the  ilkision  vanished.  On 
lying  down  again  I  saw  it  a  second  time — plainer,  if  possi- 
ble, than  before  ;  and  then  I  noticed  that  one  of  the  faces 
was  a  little  paler,  say  five  shades,  than  the  other.  I  got 
up  and  the  thing  melted  away,  and  I  went  oif,  and,  in  the 
excitement  of  the  hour,  forgot  all  about  it — nearly,  but 
not  quite;  for  the  thing  would  once  in  a  while  come  up, 
and  give  me  a  little  pang,  as  though  something  uncomfort- 
able had  happened.  When  I  went  home  I  told  my  wife 
about  it,  and  a  few  days  after  I  tried  the  experiment 
again,  when,  sure  enough,  the  thing  came  again  ;  but  I 
never  succeeded  in  bringing  the  ghost  back  after  that, 
though  I  once  tried  very  industriously  to  show  it  to  my 


602  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

wife,  who  was  worried  about  it  somewhat.  She  thought 
it  was  a  sign  that  I  was  to  be  elected  to  a  second  term  of 
office,  and  that  the  paleness  of  one  of  the  faces  was  an 
omen  that  I  should  not  see  life  through  the  last  term.'  " 

His  poor  wife  joined  him  in  his  fatalistic  dreams. 
She  was  seer  enough  to  say  that  this  vision  meant 
his  re-election  and  his  tragic  death.  And  did  he  not 
believe  it?  When  he  entered  the  White  House  he 
lacked  "  the  one  thing  needful "  to  correct  the  dark 
ways  of  his  life,  and  make  him  a  model  to  his  race. 
He  had  erected  his  own  standards,  and  if  he  did  not 
rely  implicitly  upon  them,  he  did  not  take  to  those 
of  other  men.  Men  wefe  only  his  instruments ; 
among  them  he  had  no  models.  But  he  was  not  a 
man  without  a  heart,  and  so  prominent  did  his  heart 
acts  become  during  his  best  days  (the  period  in 
which  his  irreligion  and  selfishness  largely  melted 
away),  that  it  has  been  a  question  among  men 
whether  his  heart  or  his  cold  intellect  shaped  his 
conduct  as  President. 

The  matter  of  gratitude  is  a  thing  about  which 
the  many-sided  world  has  given  itself  much  trouble, 
and  many  men  have  held  to  the  notion  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  without  this  somewhat  exaggerated  virtue. 
He  liked  or  loved  mankind  as  a  whole,  or  in  the  ab- 
stract much  more  than  in  the  individual.  He  was 
tender  and  gentle  without  talking  of  love.  He  ex- 
pressed his  own  general  trait  most  truly  when  he 
said  he  did  what  he  did  "  with  malice  toward  none, 
and  with  charity  for  all ;"  and  in  the  following  words 
he  gave  all  of  his  beautiful  philosophy  of  gratitude  :■_ — 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  603 

"My  frieuds  you  owe  me  no  gratitude  for  what  I  have 
done ;  and  I,  I  may  say,  owe  you  no  gratitude  for  what 
you  have  done;  just  as,  in  a  sense,  we  owe  no  gratitude 
to  the  men  who  have  fought  our  battles  for  us.  I  trust 
that  this  has  all  been  for  us  all  a  work  of  duty." 

Gratitude  he  now  held  was  due  to  the  Great  Giver 
of  all  gifts.  To  do  what  was  just  and  right  and  best 
and  fit  was  reasonably  to  be  exacted  and  expected 
of  man,  and  in  the  doing  should  he  find  his  delight 
and  reward. 

What  was  true  and  good  he  came  to  venerate  in- 
tensely, if  he  did  not  always  do  so,  and  this  was  one 
of  his  distinguishing  traits.  And  akin  to  it  was  his 
strong  sense  of  right  and  justice.  Mere  friendship 
and  all  ordinary  considerations  gave  way  before 
these.  The  title  of  "  Honest  Abe"  he  deserved,  and, 
perhaps,  he  esteemed  it  more  than  all  else.  To  have' 
earned  this  title  must  go  far  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world,  and  on  the  pages  of  history,  in  fixing  his  name 
among  the  few  who  may  justly  be  called  "  the  great, 
the  wise,  and  the  good. 


604  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

MR.  LINCOLN'S    RELIGION— LOOK    AT    THIS  MAN  OF  SOR- 
ROW—WHAT VERDICT  ? 

IT  is  not  difficult  for  an  ordinarily  well-balanced 
man  to  be  good  to  others  when  he  has  more  than 
he  wants  for  himself.  A  full  man,  like  a  full  horse, 
may  readily  be  generous.  A  starving  man  is  not 
greatly  different  from  other  animals  under  like  cir- 
cumstances. The  laws  of  mental  and  spiritual  life 
are  upon  the  same  general  footing  as  the  physical, 
and  are  explained  by  them.  Genuine  goodness  is 
not  so  circumscribed,  nor  is  selfishness  so  much  dif- 
fused, as  many  suppose.  In  the  first  successful 
stages  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  he  seemed  to  doubt,  at 
times,  whether  any  of  his  acts  were  unselfish.  When 
he  put  himself  to  great  trouble  to  relieve  a  suffering 
animal  or  man,  it  was  to  relieve  a  pang  or  distress 
in  himself  caused  by  the  pain  of  the  other.  This  he 
thought  was  selfishness.  So  have  thought  other 
misguided  men.  This  is  one  of  the  most  foolish 
sophisms  of  the  sophists.  One  man  looks  at  another 
in  pain  or  misfortune,  and  he  is  himself  disturbed, 
pained,  or  his  sympathies  are  aroused.  Were  he 
purely  selfish  this  result  could  not  follow.  He  would 
say,     This  is  not  my  business;  I  am  proof  against 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  605 

things  of  this  kind.  When  he  has  felt  at  all,  and 
knows  that  he  has,  he  has  put  the  seal  of  falsehood 
on  the  theory  of  selfishness.  If  he  puts  forth  his 
hand  to  give  aid,  he  relieves  an  unbidden  pang  in 
himself,  one  to  which  selfishness  could  not  have  given 
birth.  To  the  other  a  benefit  follows,  and  the  de- 
light is  mutual.  Would  not  a  purely  selfish  creature 
have  power  to  relieve  himself  of  pain,  or  the  uneasi- 
ness of  sympathy,  by  taking  some  other  course,  one 
giving  him  no  trouble,  work,  or  self-denial  ?  Should 
he  not  say.  Let  the  plant  lie;  if  it  droops  and  dies 
there  are  more  flowers  to  brighten  the  path  which  I 
am  traveling;  the  lame  brute  or  the  unfortunate  man, 
what  are  their  sorrows  to  me  ?  The  pang  disappears, 
does  it  not  ?  Is  it  not  lost  in  the  forgetfulness  and 
easy  philosophy  of  selfishness  ?  Is  an  act  done  for 
a  purpose  a  selfish  one  ?  Is  a  motive  the  necessary 
sign  of  selfishness  ?  What  folly !  The  character  of 
the  motive  is  only  a  matter  of  question.  The  pain 
in  one  arising  from  sight  of  pain  in  another  is  gen- 
uine sympathy ;  otherwise  it  would  not  be  pain. 
Selfishness  does  not  torture  itself.  It  courts  no  sor- 
row, admits  none.  The  hand  extended  in  relief  is 
impelled  by  the  motive  to  do  good,  to  serve  another. 
Selfishness  may  have  no  hand  in  the  act.  Selfish- 
ness is  not  bound  to  act  in  that  way.  If  it  had  a 
pang  it  could  and  would  choose  another  course  for 
its  relief,  one  in  harmony  with  its  nature.  If  it 
merely  assumed  a  pang  without  its  real  existence,  in 
the  hope  or  desire  of  ultimate  sole  self-benefits,  then 
there  would  be  no  question  about  the  motive  or  the 


606  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

character  of  the  deed,  and  we  would  enter  the  realm 
of  undisputed,  unmitigated  selfishhess. 

There  are  no  overburdened  or  oppressed  individ- 
uals in  the  providence  of  God. 

There  are  no  favored  individuals  in  the  providence 
of  God. 

On  these  two  great  axiomatic  propositions  Mr. 
Lincoln  stumbled  all  his  life.  The  reverse  of  these 
he  took  to  be  true,  some  way,  notwithstanding  his 
single  devotion  to  what  he  deemed  principles  of  jus- 
tice and  right.  He  considered  himself  a  man  of  sor- 
row. The  weight  of  his  fatker's  hand  was  always  on 
his  buck.  The  ignorance  and  poverty  of  his  parents 
seemed  to  be  a  burden  to  him  in  after  life.  His  love 
affairs  drew  him  into  fits  of  insanity,  from  which  he 
recovered  with  additional  burdens  on  his  shoulders. 
And  finally  he  felt  that  the  fates  had  driven  him 
into  a  marriage  which  he  could  not  and  must  not 
avoid,  and  in  this  he  deemed  himself  doomed  to  walk 
in  a  cloud  of  sadness. 

These  unmanly  whims  diseased  his  mind;  and 
when  he  viewed  himself  in  a  political  aspect  he  only 
got  back  double  reflections  from  his  mirror  of  sor- 
rows. Fate  had  here,  too,  fixed  upon  him  a  burden 
which  he  could  not  and  would  not  shake  off,  and 
which  must  land  him  ultimately  in  the  darkness  of 
despair.  He  was  the  servant  of  the  people,  and  in 
a  great  struggle,  a  decree  and  principle  of  fate,  he 
was  to  die  for  them.  In  him,  bodily,  the  great  and 
"irrepressible  conflict"  was  first  waged.  The  people 
were  his  instruments.     He  was  the  central  figure  in 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  6Q7 

all  his  cjilculations.  God  or  fate,  much  the  same  to 
him,  so  indicated ;  and  when  the  burden  fell  from  his 
back  the  drama  would  end,  in  evil  to  him  and  good 
to  mankind.  Hour  after  hour  he  spent  in  confirming 
himself  in  these  gloomy  and  evil  fancies.  His 
moments  of  gloom,  his  dark,  black, "  terrible,"  "  ter- 
rible" moments,  were  those  in  which  he  sat  dream- 
ing of  himself,  dreaming  of  liis  sorrows,  of  responsi- 
bilities, of  evils,  of  crosses,  suffering,  honors,  glories, 
death,  uncertainty,  and  night,  irretrievable,  godless 
night.  When  he  worked,  worked  hard  incessantly, 
told  stories,  and  was  merry,  he  was  a  man,  nnd  only 
then.  Even  then  it  was  hard  to  keep  the  dark 
shadows  from  creeping  over  him.  His  hours  of  sad- 
ness were  the  most  precious.  There  he  built  dark 
castles,  in  which  he  groped  as  a  Giant  Despair.  Here 
was  a  perpetual  fantasy.  And  the  man  who  had 
taken  a  pride  in  being  called  the  "  Sangamon  Chief," 
who  could  throw  or  whip  any  man  in  the  county 
or  State,  a  towering  king  among  men,  as  animals, 
was  lost  with  himself  as  a  spiritual  or  intellectual 
being. 

I  hold  that  any  sane,  intelligent  man  may  sit 
down  and  build  a  castle  in  the  air;  it  may,  indeed,  be 
to  surround  himself  with  untold  wealth,  with  which 
he  rears  beautiful  edifices  dedicated  to  religion,  art, 
science,  music,  charity;  clothes  the  naked,  feeds  the 
hungry,  makes  friends  and  foes  alike  happy,  and, 
against  his  will,  causes  all  men  to  rise  up  and  call 
him  blessed;  may  repeat  this  dream,  day  after  day, 
until  the  "baseless  fabric"  will  not  fly  away  at  his 


608  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

bidding,  and  insanity  claim  a  new  subject  from  the 
ever  beautiful  and  healthful  domain  of  god-like  reason. 

Here  was  Mr.  Lincoln  at  fault  more  than  any 
other  President  of  the  United  States,  or  indeed,  any 
other  man  who  has  risen  to  distinction  in  this  country. 
All  the  things  which  are  here  enumerated  before  his 
political  burdens,  so  conceived,  came  upon  him,  and 
Avhich  were  the  introduction  to  all  other  gloomy 
errors  in  his  life,  were  things  that  are  common  to  the 
lots  of  men. 

Who  has  not  been  thwarted  in  his  early  loves? 
How  many  have  not  fought  with  poverty?  Where 
have  been  the  dwellings  of  the  wise?  Where  has 
not  ignorance  stalked  at  noonday  ?  How  many 
have  escaped  the  misfortunes  of  imperfect  parentage? 
What  youth  has  not  considered  his  own  evils  and 
hardships  very  considerable  and  onerous?  What 
per  cent  of  all  marriages  is  wisely  made  and  per- 
fectly harmonious  and  blissful  ?  Why,  if  all  men  were 
as  unwise  as  Abraham  Lincoln  then  was,  the  world 
would  be  a  vast  lunatic  asylum.  Most  brave  men, 
even  ordinary  ones,  have  fought  these  common  little 
battles,  and  gone  on  stronger  for  it,  and  have  been 
able  to  help  the  world  on  a  little,  by  having  them- 
selves made  some  progress  in  learning  "  to  be,  and  to 
do,  and  to  suffer." 

The  worst  and  the  best  of  it  all  about  this  dream- 
er's dreams  of  glory  and  misfortune  was,  that  they 
came  true.  Every  step  served  to  convince  him  that 
the  next  was  certain  and  unavoidable.  Without  long 
years  of  preparation   he   entered  the  White  House. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  609 

This  humble  rail-splitter  from  the  West !  He  had 
dreamed  of  this  day.  And  now  could  the  rest  fail 
to  follow  ? 

In  what  may  be  called  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious 
life  there  were,  however,  two  distinct  epochs.  One 
of  these  counterbalanced  or  neutralized  the  other. 
They  may  be  designated  as  the  evil  and  the  good 
epochs,  the  first  extending  from  his  boyhood  to  his 
election  as  President,  and  the  other  embracing  the 
years  he  spent  in  the  White  House.  However, 
much  stress  has  been  placed  upon  the  teachings  and 
good  influence  of  his  "sainted  mother,"  it  does  not 
appear  that  Lincoln  was  saved  or  even  greatly  bene- 
fited by  them.  Sallie  Bush,  his  step-mother,  may 
have  given  a  new  direction  to  his  manly  instincts 
and  his  aspirations,  about  gaining  distinction  in  the 
world,  but  that  she,  succeeded  in  fixing  him  in  the 
principles  of  Christianity,  or  that  she  either  had  the 
ability,  or  a  very  lively  inclination,  to  do  so,  is  not 
shown  by  evidence  in  her  life  or  his.  His  first  step 
in  oratory  was  in  the  ridicule  of  poor  preaching,  vul- 
gar and  unrefined  preaching,  and  poor  preachers, 
coarse  and  illiterate  preachers,  that  then  abounded, 
and  with  whom  the  world  is  yet,  perhaps,  sufficiently 
afflicted.  His  purpose  in  hearing  a  sermon  seemed 
to  be  to  gratify  his  faculty  of  imitation  and  ridicule. 
To  this  end,  to  some  extent,  he  read  the  Bible. 
Much  of  it  he  had  in  his  mind,  and  what  he  had  he 
handled  as  he  did  the  coarse  things  with  which  he 
labored.  It  was  the  only  book  that  was  always  easy 
of  access.     The  divinity  of  the  Scriptures  he  did  not 

89  — Q 


610  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

see,  but  his  passion  for  reading  was  gratified.  When 
he  wandered  from  Indiana,  if  he  had  principles  in 
this  way  they  were  not  positive,  if  they  were  not 
anti-Christian.  At  New  Salem  he  "  fell  among  rob- 
bers," he  entered  a  "  den  of  thieves,"  and  these  he 
took  up,  dropping  what  he  had.  In  a  race  of  infi- 
dels, he  soon  outran  all  teachers. 

In  1834,  or  1835,  he  wrote,  it  is  strongly  claimed, 
a  long  paper  or  pamphlet  constituting  what  he  termed 
an  argument  against  the  Bible  and  Christianity.  This 
performance  he  exhibited  to  Samuel  Hill  and  his 
son,  New  Salem  merchants.  The  son  thought  it 
beyond  the  bounds  of  ordinary  execration,  and  Hill 
threw  the  manuscript  into  the  fire,  and  burned  it 
before  the  author's  face.  Hill  believed  that  Lincoln 
was  susceptible  of  rising  to  a  great  future,  and  this 
thing,  if  it  came  to  light,  would  kill  him  utterly,  as 
it  deserved  to  do.  Thus  ended  this  matter,  and  the 
world  never  knew  much  about  it,  not  enough  to  be 
absolutely  certain  of  its  truth,  and  Lincoln  took  alarm 
himself,  and  became  too  politic  to  make  another 
venture,  although  he  talked  about  his  pamphlet  to 
several  of  his  "  friends." 

In  Springfield  his  associations  were  irreligiously 
similar  to  those  of  New  Salem,  and  all  through  his 
early  political  career  his  position,  or  supposed  posi- 
tion, was  a  cause  of  weakness,  which  gave  him  no 
little  annoyance,  rendering  him  still  more  reticent 
and  politic.  In  1840  even,  he  had  courted  the  good 
opinion  of  the  clergy,  and,  perhaps,  deceived  them, 
to  some  extent,  as  to  his  real  views.      He  ceased  to 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  611 

make  himself  known  in  this  matter  to  his  friends, 
even  to  his  infidel  friends,  even  to  Herndon,  who 
has  written  so  much  about  him,  and  whose  great 
ambition  appeared  to  be  to  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  an  infidel,  and  opposed  to  technical  Christianity. 
But  however  reliable  the  testimony  Mr.  Herndon 
was  able  to  give,  up  to  1840,  perhaps  1856,  he  ceased 
to  be  reliable  after  that  time.  Then,  he  knew  that 
Lincoln's  religion  was  as  bad  as  his  own,  if  not  worse. 
He  admits  that  Lincoln  not  only  ceased  to  confide 
this  thing,  but  most  of  the  real  workings  of  his  life 
to  him;  then,  how  could  he  have  known  what  they 
were  ?  His  inference  that  Lincoln  held  out  in  his 
former  ways  to  the  end,  is  not  established  either  by 
his  assertion  or  the  supposed  proofs  he  has  given. 
That  Lincoln  believed  in  God  and  immortality  Hern- 
don never  doubted,  'and  he  believed  the  letter  to 
John  D.  Johnston,  as  to  his  father's  preparation  for 
death,  proves  this  fact  beyond  a  doubt.  And  so  it 
did,  if  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  hypocrite.  But  Mr. 
Herndon's  falling  back  upon  this  kind  of  evidence 
shows  plainly  enough  how  little  he  really  knew 
about  what  Mr.  Lincoln  was  feeling  and  thinking. 

Mr.  Lamon,  who  was  much  with  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
knew  as  little  about  him,  in  this  respect,  as  any- 
body, and  who  took  Herndon  for  his  guide,  put  much 
stress  on  the  opinion  of  John  G.  Nicolay,  to  the 
efiect  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  change  his  religious 
views  after  entering  the  White  House.  But  Mr. 
Nicolay  had  no  opportunity  to  know  what  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's opinions  were  then,  and  he  knew  very  little, 


612  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

subsequently,  about  what  Mr.  Lincoln  was  doing  in 
this  respect. 

Jesse  W.  Fell,  one  of  the  most  reliable  writers  on 
this  subject,  was  of  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Lincoln's 
views  on  most  points  were  directly  opposite  to  the 
precepts  of  wh;it  is  termed  orthodoxy,  and  hence 
would  have  been  classed  as  entirely  out  of  the  pale 
of  Christianity.  But  said  Mr.  Fell :  "  To  my  mind, 
such  was  not  the  true  position,  since  his  principles 
and  prnctices  and  the  spirit  of  his  whole  life  were 
of  the  very  kind  we  universally  agree  to  call  Chris- 
tian; and  I  think  this  conclusion  is  in  no  wise  af- 
fected by  the  circumstance  that  he  never  attached 
himself  to  any  religious  society  whatever." 

About  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  election  to  the 
Presidency,  Mr.  Newton  Bateman,  State  Superintend- 
ent of  Education,  thinking  that  the  moment  had 
come  to  give  a  new  direction  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  relig- 
ion in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  took  the  task 
upon  himself.  Dr.  Holland  gives  this  statement  of 
the  matter  substantially  from  Mr.  Bateman : — 

"Mr.  Newton  Bateman,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion for  the  State  of  Illinois,  occupied  a  room  adjoining  and 
opening  into  the  Executive  Chamber.  Frequently  this  door 
was  open  during  Mr.  Lincoln's  receptions  ;  and  throughout  the 
seven  months  or  more  of  his  occupation,  Mr.  Bateman  saw  him 
nearly  every  day.  Often,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  tired,  he  closed 
his  door  against  all  intrusion,  and  called  Mr.  Bateman  into  his 
room  for  a  quiet  talk.  On  one  of  these  occasions  Mr.  Lincoln 
took  up  a  book  containing  a  careful  canvass  of  the  city  of  Spring- 
field in  which  he  lived,  showing  the  candidate  for  whom  each 
citizen  had  declared  it  his  intention  to  vote  in  the  approaching 
election.      Mr.   Lincoln's    friends    had,  doubtless    at  his    own 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  613 

request,  placed  the  result  of  the  canvass  in  his  hands.  This  was 
toward  the  close  of  October,  and  only  a  few  days  before  the 
election.  Calling  Mr.  Bateman  to  a  seat  at  his  side,  having 
previously  locked  all  the  doors,  he  said  :  'Let  us  look  over  this 
book.  I  wish  particularly  to  see  how  the  ministers  of  Spring- 
field are  going  to  vote.'  The  leaves  were  turned,  one  by  one, 
and  as  the  names  were  examined  Mr.  Lincoln  frequently  asked 
if  this  one  and  that  were  not  a  minister,  or  an  elder,  or  the 
member  of  such  or  sueh  a  Church,  and  sadly  expressed  his  sur- 
prise on  receiving  an  affirmative  answer.  In  that  manner  they 
went  through  the  book,  and  then  he  closed  it  and  .sat  .silently, 
and  for  some  minutes  regarding  a  memorandum  in  pencil  which 
lay  before  him.  At  length  he  turned  to  Mr.  Bateman  with  a 
face  fidl  of  sadness,  and  said :  '  Here  are  twenty-three  ministers, 
of  different  denominations,  and  all  of  them  are  against  me  but 
three ;  and  here  are  a  great  many  prominent  members  of  the 
Churches,  a  very  large  majority  of  whom  are  against  me.  Mr. 
Bateman,  I  am  not  a  Christian — God  knows  I  would  be  one — 
but  I  have  carefully  read  the  Bible,  and  I  do  not  so  understand 
this  book ;'  and  he  drew  from  his  bosom  a  pocket  New  Testa- 
ment. *  These  men  well  know,'  he  continued,  '  that  I  am  for 
freedom  in  the  territories,  freedom  everywhere  as  far  as  the 
Constitution  and  laws  will  permit,  and  that  my  opponents  are 
for  slavery.  They  know  this,  and  yet,  witli  this  l)ook  in  their 
hands,  in  the  light  of  which  human  b(mdage  can  nut  live  a  mo- 
ment, they  are  going  to  vote  against  me.  I  do  not  understand 
it  at  all.' 

"  Here  Mr.  Lincoln  paused — paused  for  long  minutes,  his 
features  surcharged  with  emotion.  Then  he  rose  and  walked 
up  and  down  the  room  in  the  effort  to  retain  or  regain  his  self- 
possession.  Stopping  at  last,  he  said,  with  a  trembling  voice, 
and  his  cheeks  wet  with  tears :  '  I  know  there  is  a  God,  and 
that  he  hates  injustice,  and  slavery.  I  see  the  storm  coming, 
and  I  know  that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  he  has  a  place  and  work 
for  me — and  I  think  he  has — I  believe  I  am  ready.  I  am  noth- 
ing, but  truth  is  every  thing.  I  know  I  am  right,  because  I 
know  that  liberty  is  right ;  for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is 
God.  I  have  told  them  that  a  house  divided  against  itself  can 
not  stand,  and  Christ  and  reason  say  the  same  ;  and  they  will 


614  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

find  it  so.  Douglas  do  u't  care  wliether  slavery  is  voted  up  or 
voted  down,  but  God  cares,  and  humanity  cares,  and  I  care  ;  and 
with  God's  help  I  shall  not  fail.  I  may  not  see  the  end  ;  but  it 
will  come,  and  I  shall  be  vindicated  ;  and  these  men  will  find 
that  they  have  not  read  their  Bibles  aright.' 

"Much  of  this  was  uttered  as  if  he  were  speaking  to  him- 
self, and  with  a  sad  and  earnest  solemnity  of  manner  impossi- 
ble to  be  described.  After  a  pause,  he  resumed  :  '  Does  n't  it 
appear  strange  that  men  can  ignore  the  moral  aspects  of  this 
contest?  A  revelation  could  not  make  it  plainer  to  me  that 
slavery  or  the  government  must  be  destroyed.  The  future 
would  be  something  awful,  as  I  look  at  it,  but  for  this  rock  on 
which  I  stand'  (alluding  to  the  Testament  which  he  still  held 
in  his  hand),  '  especially  with  the  knowledge  of  how  these  min- 
isters are  going  to  vote.  It  seems  as  if  God  had  borne  with 
this  thing  (slavery)  until  the  very  teachers  of  religion  have 
come  to  defend  it  from  the  Bible,  and  to  claim  for  it  a  divine 
character  and  sanction  ;  and  now  the  cup  of  iniquity  is  full, 
and  the  vials  of  wrath  will  be  poured  out.' 

'•'  His  last  reference  was  to  certain  prominent  clergymen  in 
the  South,  Drs.  Ross  and  Palmer  among  the  number  ;  and  he 
went  on  to  comment  on  the  atrociousness  and  essential  blas- 
phemy of  their  attempts  to  defend  American  slavery  from  the 
Bible.  After  this  the  conversation  was  continued  for  a  long 
time.  Every  thing  he  said  was  of  a  peculiarly  deep,  tender, 
and  religious  tone,  and  all  was  tinged  with  a  touching  melan- 
choly. He  repeatedly  referred  to  his  conviction  that  the  day 
of  wrath  was  at  hand,  and  that  he  was  to  be  an  actor  in  the 
terrible  struggle  which  would  issue  in  the  overthrow  of  slavery, 
though  he  might  not  live  to  see  the  end.  He  repeated  many 
passages  of  the  Bible,  and  seemed  specially  impressed  with  the 
solemn  grandeur  of  portions  of  Revelation,  describing  the  wrath 
of  Almighty  God.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation,  he  dwelt 
much  upon  the  necessity  of  faith  in  the  Christian's  God,  as  an 
element  of  successful  statesmanship,  especially  in  times  like 
those  which  were  upon  him,  and  said  that  it  gave  that  calmness 
and  tranquillity  of  mind,  that  assurance  of  ultimate  success, 
which  made  a  man  firm  and  immovable  amid  the  wildest  ex- 
citements.    After  further  reference  to  a  belief  in  Divine  Provi- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  615 

dence,  and  the  fact  of  God  in  history,  the  conversation  turned 
upon  prayer.  He  freely  stated  his  belief  in  the  duty,  privilege, 
and  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  intimated,  in  no  unmistakable  terms, 
that  he  had  sought  in  that  way  the  Divine  guidance  and  favor. 
"The  effect  of  this  conversation  upon  the  mind  of  Mr.  Bate- 
man,  a  Christian  gentleman  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  profoundly  re- 
spected, was  to  convince  him  that  Mr.  Lincolu  had,  in  his  quiet 
way,  found  a  path  to  the  Christian  stand-point — that  he  had 
found  God,  and  rested  on  the  eternal  truth  of  God.  As  the 
two  men  were  about  two  separate,  Mr.  Bateman  remarked  : 
'  I  have  not  supposed  that  you  were  accustomed  to  think  so 
much  upon  this  class  of  subjects.  Certainly  your  friends  gener- 
ally are  ignorant  of  the  sentiments  you  have  expressed  to  me.'" 

And,  of  course,  Dr.  Holland  and  most  other  Chris- 
tian people  adopted  this  view  of  the  case.  It  was 
best  and  most  agreeable.  It  was  best  for  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's welfare  as  President,  and  most  agreeable  to 
the  great  body  of  those  who  were  to  uphold  him. 
Mr.  Lamon  flatly  contradicts  this  whole  story,  and 
treats  it  as  a  bad  piece  of  fiction.  And  while  it  does 
seem  that  Mr.  Bateman  had  drawn  on  his  imagina- 
tion, and  was  willing  to  risk  his  own  reputation  for 
the  sake  of  removing  an  eternal  blemish  from  that  of 
Lincoln,  it  may  still  be  held,  with  some  propriety, 
that  the  question  of  veracity  has  never  been  abso- 
lutely settled  against  Mr.  Bateman.  After  a  thorough 
and  exhaustive  consideration  of  the  subject,  however, 
I  am  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  Mr.  Bateman's 
story  was  to  a  great  extent  fictitious,  and  that  at  the 
time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  'election  to  the  Presidency,  he 
stood  about  where  Mr.  Herndon  and  that  class  of 
his  friends  placed  him  technically;  at  least,  he  was 
certainly  not   a   Christian,  however   much   like    one 


616  LIFE  AND  TIME8  OF 

should  be^  he  might  have  been  in  many  of  his  prac- 
tices. But  if  Mr.  Bateman  willfully  committed  an 
error  that  good  might  come,  Mr.  Lamon  and  his 
school,  in  the  face  of  evidence  which  they  were  not 
wise  or  just  in  overlooking,  have  gone  to  the  opposite 
extremes.  It  is  by  them  asserted  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
not  only  never  uttered  a  word  which  implied  the 
slightest  faith  on  his  part  in  Christ  as  the  Savior  of 
men,  as  God,  but  that  he  never  even  uttered  any  of 
the  names  of  God,  the  Savior.  How  true  all  of  this 
is  may  appear  hereafter. . 

Most  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends,  both  early  and  late, 
believed  him  to  be  very  superstitious.  And  so  he 
was,  but  that  there  can  always  be,  or  is  generally, 
any  thing  very  profound  or  serious  in  this  charge 
may  well  be  doubted.  Mr.  Lincoln  believed  in  "signs 
and  omens,"  and  dreamed  himself  into  a  helpless 
fatalism,  but  a  belief  in  "signs  and  omens"  is  not 
necessarily  superstition;  and  whether  it  makes  any 
part  of  superstition  depends  on  the  nature  of  the 
"signs  and  omens."  The  man  who  plants  or  sows  at 
certain  times  in  the  month  is  said  to  be  superstitious 
in  a  mean  sense,  but  that  charge  should  be  made 
with  caution.  Hundreds  of  things  once  placed  under 
the  easy  designation  of  superstition,  have  become 
scientific  facts.  The  mental  and  spiritual  planes 
have  been  approached  with  distrust,  in  ignorance  and 
caution.  There,  it  has  been  held,  fair  science  does 
not  go,  and  the  foundations  of  those  planes  are  treated 
as  uncertain  and  mystical.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  was  never 
able  to  get  beyond   the  things  of  natural  sense,  he 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  617 

had  at  all  events,  a  deep,  unalterable  belief  in  the 
supernatural. 

But  why  lay  all  this  stress  upon  what  he  believed 
in  these  matters  ?  Why  should  all  these  discussions, 
and  this  strife  have  arisen  about  his  religious  opin- 
ions ?  Was  it  because  the  friends  of  Christianity 
needed  such  a  supporter?  Was  it  because  the  ene- 
mies of  Christianity  felt  that  their  bad  cause  would 
be  greatly  benefited  by  the  influence  of  such  a  char- 
acter ?  What  were  his  theological  opinions  worth  ? 
In  theology  Mr.  Lincoln  was  an  unwise  man,  ex- 
tremely so.  Strictly  speaking,  he  was  learned  on 
few  subjects,  and  less  on  this  than  any  other.  He 
really  read  very  few  books.  During  the  last  four  or 
five  years  of  his  life  he  read  no  great  modern  work. 
Two  or  three  humorous  works  he  read  thoroughly, 
he  thought,  to  relieve  him  from  the  weight  of  his 
labor  and  troubles.  A  course  of  theological  reading 
he  never  imposed  upon  himself  What  little  he  did 
read  at  New  Salem  and  Springfield  was  in  a  skeptical 
line.  His  theological  opinions  were  utterly  worth- 
less, and  his  position  as  a  religious  or  irreligious  man 
could  not  have  weighed  as  a  straw  for  or  against  any 
cause.  Opinions  are  valuable  for  the  weight  of  evi- 
dence they  carry  with  them,  for  the  manner  in  which 
they  appeal  to  intelligent  judgment.  The  weight  of 
evidence  may  be  sufficiently  apparent  in  the  known 
character  of  the  individual  who  expresses  the  opinion. 
Among  the  intelligent,  that  man  may  look  most  for 
the  reasonable  and  fair  consideration  of  his  views  who 
has  read  the    most  and   to  the  best  advantage,  who 


618  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

has  thought  the  most  and  the  most  cautiously,  critic- 
ally, and  correctly.  To  be  worthy  of  respect,  an 
opinion,  on  any  subject,  must  appeal  to  intelligent 
and  refined  judgment.  In  theology  men  wander 
most,  and  yet  here  they  set  themselves  up  most. 
However  dense  ignorance  may  be  on  other  subjects, 
here  it  is  likely  to  be  far  more  dense.  The  man 
who  never  reads  the  Bible,  which  he  often  can  not 
understand,  or  a  plain  work  on  religion  or  theology, 
which  he  might  stand  some  little  chance  of  under- 
standing, is  often  the  first  and  loudest  in  setting  him- 
self up  as  "knowing  just  as  much  about  that  as  he 
does,  he's  never  been  there."  If  men  know  little  of 
the  things  immediately  before  their  eyes,  and  aU 
around  their  natural  senses,  how  much  less  may  they 
be  expected  to  know  of  things  seen  by  eyes  and  sur- 
rounded by  senses  they  do  not  believe  they  possess, 
spiritual  things  with  which  theology  and  religion 
chiefly  deal! 

It  is  a  matter  of  utter  indifference,  so  far  as  estab- 
lishing the  right  or  the  wrong,  what  ignorant  and 
uninformed  men  believe.  So  Mr.  Lincoln's  reading, 
culture,  opportunities,  preparation  did  not  fit  him  for 
a  theological  critic,  and  hence  it  was  ridiculous  at  the 
outset  to  place  any  stress  upon  what  he  was  relig- 
iously, from  what  he  had  studied,  thought,  reasoned, 
learned,  loved. 

Many  of  those,  who,  in  an  earlier  day,  from  1845 
to  1860,  talked  about  and  assailed  Mr.  Lincoln's  re- 
ligion, did  it  from  what  they  termed  the  orthodox 
point  of  view.     And  after  all,  with  them,  Mr.  Lin- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  619 

coin's  offense  seemed  mainly  to  be  want  of  ortho- 
doxy. It  was  not  so  much  that  he  lacked  in  the 
elements,  or  at  least  many  of  the  practical  elements, 
of  Christian  life  and  character,  but  that  he  failed  in 
answering  to  the  creed.  This  was  one  of  the  barely 
possible  things  with  Mr.  Lincoln.  Nothing  could  be 
more  difficult  with  him  than  to  sav,  "  I  believe." 
What  would  satisfy  minds  of  ordinary  mold  was 
often  wholly  unsatisfactory  and  out  of  the  question 
with  Mr.  Lincoln.  Here,  as  in  most  other  things,  it 
was  natural  for  him  not  to  be  ,'i  minnow,  but  to 
wander  uncaught,  lilie  a  big  fish,  in  the  blue  deep. 

In  the  previous  pages  the  first  epoch  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  religious  character  and  life,  so-called,  has 
been  presented  with  some  degree  of  fullness.  This 
course  has  appeared  necessary  from  the  importance 
which  has  been  attached  to  him  in  this  matter,  and 
the  efforts  put  forth  by  a  class  of  good  men,  who,  in 
their  zeal  for  his  general  and  unbroken  fame,  perhaps, 
overstepped  the  boundary  of  fact  to  establish  for 
him  a  reputation  which  can  hardly  be  sustained;  and 
by  another  class,  who,  being  his  friends  and  admirers, 
and  claiming  the  weight  of  evidence  on  their  side, 
have  made  similar  efforts  to  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
remained  to  the  end,  what  he  had  formerly  been,  or 
what  they  had  believed  he  had  been,  and  such  as 
they  were  themselves. 

In  his  brief  farewell  words  to  the  people  of  Spring- 
field, February  11,  1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "A  duty 
devolves  upon  me  which  is,  perhaps,  greater  than 
that  which   has  devolved  upon  any  other  man  since 


620  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

the  days  of  Washington.  He  never  would  have  suc- 
ceeded except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon 
which  he  at  all  times  relied.  I  feel  that  I  can  not 
succeed  without  the  same  Divine  aid  which  sustained 
him,  and  on  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my 
reliance  for  support;  and  I  hope  you,  my  friends, 
will  all  pray  tliat  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assist- 
ance, without  which  I  can  not  succeed,  but  with  which 
success  is  certain." 

These  were  fortunate  words.  At  the  threshold 
of  the  White  House  he  had  thus  put  himself  in 
relation  with  the  religious  world.  He  dreaded  the 
tempest  which  was  gathering  around  him,  and  felt 
that  safety  could  only  be  found  among  the  friends 
of  Him  whose  very  word  could  bring  peace  from  the 
storm.  His  gloomy  temperament,  his  natural  hum- 
bleness, his  strong  faith  in  the  supernatural,  and  the 
very  evident  thread  of  superstition  which  ran  through 
him,  in  view  of  what  was  justly  supposed  to  be  his 
religious  character  at  that  time,  may  reasonably  be 
assumed  as  sufficient  foundation  for  this  new  depart- 
ure, and  the  world  could  not  have  been  more  pleased, 
than  were  Mr.  Lincoln's  old  friends  amazed  or  non- 
plused. But,  perhaps,  he  had  never  been  so  serious 
before,  or  felt  that  he  was  more  true  to  himself  than 
when  he  uttered  the  Christian  sentiment  given  here. 
There  are  not  wanting  some  evidences  that  his 
preparation  had  begun  a  few  years  before ;  and  prob- 
ably no  better  proof  of  this  could  be  needed  than  is 
to  be  found  in  the  mere  fact  of  his  utter  conceal- 
ment of  his  religious  state  from  the  associates  who 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.  621 

regarded  it  as  bad,  that  is,  as  anti-Christian.     In  his 

speech  at  Chicago,  July  10,  1858,  Mr.  Lincoln  used 

these  words  : — 

"  It  is  said  in  one  of  the  admonitions  of  our  Lord,  'As 
vour  Father  in  Heaven  is  pcrtect,  be  ye  also  perfect.' 
The  Savior,  I  suppose,  did  not  expect  that  any  human 
creature  could  be  perfect  as  the  Father  in  Heaven ;  but 
He  said,  'As  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect,  be  ye  also 
perfect.'  He  set  that  up  as  a  standard,  and  he  who  did 
most  in  reaching  that  standard,  attained  the  highest  degree 
of  moral  perfection." 

In  his  speech  at  Springfield  on  the  17th   of  the 

same  month  he  spoke  : —  • 

"He  says  I  have  a  proneness  for  quoting  Scripture. 
If  I  should  do  so  now,  it  occurs  that,  perhaps,  he  places 
himself  somewhat  on  the  ground  of  the  parable  of  the 
lost  sheep  which  went  astray  upon  the  mountains,  and 
when  the  owner  of  the  hundred  sheep  found  the  one  that 
was  lost,  and  threw  it  upon  liis  shoulders,  and  came  home 
rejoicing,  it  was  said  that  there  was  more  rejoicing  over 
the  one  sheep  that  was  lost  and  had  been  found,  than  over 
the  ninety  and  nine  in  the  fokl.  The  application  is  made 
by  the  Savior  in  this  parable,  thus:  'Verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  there  is  more  rejoicing  in  Heaven  over  one  sinner  that 
repenteth,  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons  who  need 
no  repentance.'  And  now  if  the  Judge  (Douglas)  claims 
the  benefit  of  this  parable,  let  him  repent.  Let  him  not 
come  up  here  and  say :  '  I  am  the  only  just  person ;  and 
you  are  ninety-nine  sinners !'  Repentance  before  forgive- 
ness is  a  provision  of  the  Christian  system,  aud  on  that 
condition  alone  will  the  Republicans  grant  his  forgiveness." 

From  these  quotations  alone  it  is  evident  that 
Mr.  Lincoln's  extra  reading  was  not  all  in  an  infidel 
line,  or  light  trash,  or  in  the  questionable  Burns  and 


622  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Shakespeare,  even  at  that  period ;  and  by  these  alone 
must  forever  fall  to  the  ground  the  charge  that  he 
never  uttered  a  word  in  any  of  his  speeches  or  other 
known  writings  indicative  of  the  slightest  degree  of 
friith  in  God,  the  Savior,  or,  indeed,  that  he  ever 
uttered  the  name  of  the  Savior. 

On  parting  with  his  step-mother  in  February, 
1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to.  her:  "Trust  in  the  Lord, 
and  all  will  be  well;  we  will  see  each  other  again." 

These  words  are  found  in  his  first  inaugural  ad- 
dress :  "  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a 
firm  reliance  oa  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken 
this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjuist,  in  the 
best  way,  all  our  present  difficulties."  This  square 
position  on  the  Christian  side  must  have  sounded 
strangely  to  those  who  claimed  him  on  the  other. 
Was  a  change  already  coming  over  Mr.  Lincoln  ? 

In  his  speech  at  Ottawa,  August  21,  1858,  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  :  "  I  know  that  the  Judge  may  readily 
enough  agree  with  me  that  the  maxim  which  was 
put  forth  by  the  Savior  is  true,  but  he  may  allege 
that  I  misapply  it." 

At  Alton,  October  15,  1858,  in  speaking  of  the 
assault  made  by  Mr.  Douglas  on  the  sentiments  of  his 
"House-divided-against-itself  Speech,"  Mr.  Lincoln 
says :  "  He  has  warred  upon  them  as  Satan  wars 
upon  the  Bible." 

"Having  thus  chosen  our  cause  without  guile,  and 
with  pure  purpose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go 
forward  without  fear  and  with  manly  hearts."  (Closing 
words  of  first  message,  July  4,  1861.) 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  623 


{< 


With  a  reliance  on  Providence,  all  the  more  firm  and 
earnest,  let  us  proceed  in  the  great  task  which  events  have 
devolved  upon  us."     (First  annual  message.) 

"  In  full  view  of  my  great  responsibility  to  my  God 
and  my  country,  I  earnestly  beg  the  attention  of  Congress 
and  the  people  to  the  subject."  (Message  of  March  6, 
1862,  on  aiding  the  States  to  emancipate  the  slaves.) 

"  Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will  I  will  do." 
(Reply,  in  1862,  to  a  religious  emancipation  delegation.) 

While  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless  us  with 
the  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on,  guided  by  the 
best  light  he  gives  us,  trusting  that,  in  His  own  good  time 
and  wise  way,  all  will  be  well."     (Second  annual  message.) 

Here  is  Mr.  Lincoln's  order  appealing  to  Chris- 
tian soldiers,  November  16,  1862: — 

"The  President,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the  military  and  naval 
service.  The  importance,  for  man  and  beast,  of  the  pre- 
scribed weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers 
and  sailors,  a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiment 
of  a  Christian  people,  and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine 
will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor  in  the  army  and  navy  be 
reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict  necessity.  The  discipline 
and  character  of  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer,  nor 
the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled,  by  the  profanation  of 
the  day  or  name  of  the  Most  High.  'At  this  time  of  public 
distress,'  adopting  the  words  of  Washington  in  1776,  'men 
may  find  enough  to  do  in  the  service  of  God  and  their 
country,  without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and 
immorality.'  The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father 
of  his  Country,  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
indicates  the  spirit  in  which  our  institutions  were  founded 
and   should   ever  be    defended :    '  The  General  hopes  and 


624  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will  endeavor  to  live  and 
act  as  becomec  a  Christian  soldier  defending  the  dearest 
rights  and  liberties  of  his  country. 

"Abeaham  Lincoln." 

"  In  the  form  approved  by  their  own  conscience,  render 
the  homage  due  to  the  Divine  Majesty,  for  the  wonderful 
thinf^s  He  has  done  in  the  Nation's  behalf,  and  invoke  the 
influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit  to  subdue  the  anger  which 
has  produced  and  so  long  sustained  a  needless  and  cruel 
rebellion."     (Thanksgiving  Proclamation,  July  15,  1863.) 

"ExECTTivE  Mansion,  Washington,  D.  C,  \ 

"  May  9,  1864.        | 

"To  THE  Friends  of  Union  and  Liberty: — 

"  Enough  is  known  of  army  operations,  within  the  last 
five  days,  to  claim  our  special  gratitude  to  God.  While 
what  remains  undone  demands  our  most  sincere  prayers  to 
and  reliance  upon  Him  (witliout  whom  all  effort  is  vain), 
I  recommend  that  all  patriots  at  fheir  homes,  in  their 
places  of  public  worship,  and  wherever  they  may  be,  unite 
in  common  thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God. 

"Abraham  Lincoln." 

"Gentlemen, — In  response  to  your  address,  allow  me 
to  attest  the  accuracy  of  its  historical  statements,  indorse 
the  sentiments  it  expresses,  and  thank  you,  in  the  Nation's 
name,  for  the  sure  promise  it  gives.  Nobly  sustained,  as 
the  Government  has  been,  by  all  the  Churches,  I  would 
utter  nothing  which  might  in  the  least  appear  invidious 
against  any.  Yet,  without  this,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  not  less  devoted  than  the 
best,  is,  by  its  greater  numbers,  the  most  important  of  all. 
It  is  no  fault  in  others  that  the  Methodist  Church  sends 
more  soldiers  to  the  field,  more  nurses  to  the  hospitals, 
and  more  prayers  to  Heaven  than  any.  God  bless  the 
Methodist  Church;  bless  all  the  Churches;  and  blessed  be 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  625 

God,  who,  in  this  our  great  trial,  giveth  us  the  Churches!" 
(Mr.  Lincoln's  answer  to  Methodist  Conference,  May, 
1864.) 

"  In  regard  to  the  Great  Book,  I  have  only  to  say  it 
is  the  best  gift  which  God  has  ever  given  to  man.  All 
the  good  from  the  Savior  of  the  world  is  communicated  to 
us  through  this  book.  But  for  that  book,  we  could  not 
know  right  from  wrong.  All  those  things  desirable  to 
man  are  contained  in  it.  I  return  you  sincere  thanks  for 
this  very  elegant  copy  of  this  great  Book  of  God,  which 
you  present."  (In  Mr.  Lincoln's  remarks  to  colored  men 
of  Baltimore  in  1864.) 

"  If  God  now  wills  the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and 
wills  that  we  of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South, 
shall  pay  fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  impar- 
tial history  will  find  therein  new  causes  to  attest  and  re- 
vere the  justice  and  goodness  of  God."  (Letter  to  A.  G. 
Hodges,  April,  1864.) 

These  quotations  will  serve  as  Mr.  Lincoln's  own 
testimony  as  to  the  growth  of  his  religion.  In  the 
last  ye^r  his  proclamations  were  very  numerous,  and 
the  display  of  religious  sentiment  was  constantly 
more  intense ;  nor  was  it  of  a  character  to  which  the 
most  orthodox  could  object.  In  his  last  inaugural  he 
said  :  "  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  right- 
eous altogether."  This  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  final  ver- 
dict. And  what  was  that  of  his  old  friends  at  Spring- 
field? They  have  held  out  in  their  efforts  to  prove 
that  he  was  an  infidel,  was  not  a  Christian,  when  he 
left  Springfield,  and  that  he  made  no  progress,  was 
not  changed  the  least  in  his  religious  faith  and  feel- 
ings at  his  death.  Was  he,  then,  a  hypocrite  ?  Were 
all  his  appeals  to  God,  to  Providence,  insincere,  and 

40-Q 


626  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  cater  to  the  public  demand  ?  Did  he  not  accept, 
and,  to  some  extent,  carry  out  the  practical  precepts 
of  the  New  Testament?  Did  he  go  out  of  the  bounds 
commonly  assigned  to  the  Christian  ?  Did  he  avoid 
any  thing  which  a  Christian  people  might  expect  of 
a  Christian  President  ?  If  his  own  record  while 
President,  on  this  point,  is  false,  then  what  becomes 
of  the  title  of  "  Honest  Abe  "  in  which  he  so  much 
prided,  and  his  right  to  which  is  not  more  boldly  de- 
fended by  any  one  than  by  Mr.  Herndon  ?  If  he 
were  untrue  in  this,  the  rest  of  his  career  is  un- 
worthy of  defense.  In  nothing  else  can  hypocrisy 
be  so  infamous  as  in  religion,  and  in  nothing  else  is 
the  experiment  of  hypocrisy  so  dangerous  to  the  in- 
diAnduai  who  tries  it.  Was  Abraham  Lincoln,  relig- 
iously, a  hypocrite  ?  Who  will  dare  to  assert  it  ? 
Then,  what  was  he?  What  do  the  words  from  his 
own  mouth  prove  him  to  have  been?  If  the  efforts 
of  his  infidel  friends  are  to  be  taken  for  all  they 
might  be  valued  at,  it  then  is  only  proper  to  admit, 
as  fully,  all  his  Christian  friends  claim  in  the  period 
they  represent,  and  in  which  their  opportunities  for  a 
correct  judgment  were  much  more  reliable. 

In  Crosby's  "  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,"  Mr.  Lincoln  is  represented  as  saying 
to  a  clergyman  : — 

"  When  I  was  first  inaugurated  I  did  not  love  Him  ; 
when  God  took  my  son,  I  was  greatly  impressed,  but  still 
I  did  not  love  Him  ;  but  when  I  stood  upon  the  battle-field 
of  Gettysburg  I  gave  my  heart  to  Christ,  and  I  can  now 
say  I  do  love  the  Savior," 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  627 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland  says  in  his  "Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  :" — 

"As  he  grew  older,  his  intensely  melancholy  and  emo- 
tional temperament  inclined  him  towards  reliance  in  an 
unseen  Providence  and  belief  in  a  future  state;  and  it  is 
certain  that,  after  the  unpopularity  of  free-thinkers  had 
forced  itself  upon  his  mind,  the  most  fervidly  passionate 
expressions  of  piety  began  to  abound  in  his  speeches.  In 
this  he  was  not,  however,  hypocritical." 

F.  B.  Carpenter,  the  painter  of  "  The  Proclama- 
lion,"  a  picture  representing  the  President  laying  his 
Emancipation  Proclamation  before  his  Cabinet,  in  his 
"  Six  Months  at  the  White  House,"  says  : — 

"  In  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term,  I  would 
scarcely  have  called  Mr.  Lincoln  a  religious  man — and  yet 
I  believe  him  to  have  been  a  sincere  Christian.  A  consti- 
tutional tendency  to  dwell  upon  sacred  things,  an  emo- 
tional nature  which  finds  ready  expression  in  religious 
conversation  and  revival  meetings,  the  culture  and  devel- 
opment of  the  devotional  element  till  the  expression  of 
such  thought  and  experience  becomes  habitual,  were  not 
among  his  characteristics.  Doubtless  he  felt  as  deeply 
upon  the  great  questions  of  the  soul  and  eternity  as  any 
other  thoughtful  man;  but  the  very  tenderness  and  hu- 
mility of  his  nature  would  not  permit  the  exposure  of  his 
inmost  convictions,  except  upon  the  rarest  occasions,  and 
to  his  most  intimate  friends.  And  yet,  aside  from  emo- 
tional expression,  I  believe  no  man  had  a  more  abiding 
sense  of  his  dependence  upon  God,  or  faith  in  the  Divine 
government,  and  in  the  power  and  ultimate  triumph  of 
truth  and  right  in  the  world.  The  Rev.  J.  P.  Thotnpson, 
of  New  York,  in  an  admirable  discourse  upon  the  life  and 
character  of  the  departed  President,  very  justly  observed  : 
•  It  is  not  necessary  to  appeal  to  apocryphal  stories — which 


628  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

illustrate  as  much  the  assurance  of  his  visitors  as  the  sim- 
])licity  of  his  faith — for  proof  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Christian 
character/  If  his  daily  life  and  various  public  addresses 
and  writings  do  not  show  this,  surely  nothing  can  demon- 
strate it. 

"  Fortunately  there  is  sufficient  material  before  the 
public,  upon  which  to  form  a  judgment  in  this  respect, 
without  resorting  to  apocryphal  sources. 

"  The  Rev.  Mr.  Willets,  of  Brooklyn,  gave  me  an  ac- 
count of  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  part  of 
a  lady  of  his  acquaintance,  connected  with  the  *  Christian 
Commission,'  who  in  the  prosecution  of  her  duties  had 
several  interviews  with  him.  The  President,  it  seemed, 
had  been  much  impressed  with  the  devotion  and  earnest- 
ness of  purpose  manifested  by  the  lady,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion, after  she  had   discharged  the  object  of  her  visit,  he 

said  to  her :  '  Mrs.  ,  I  have  formed  a  high  opinion  of 

your  Christian  character,  and  now,  as  we  are  alone,  I  have 
a  mind  to  ask  you  to  give  me,  in  brief,  your  idea  of  what 
constitutes  a  true  religious  experience.'  The  lady  replied 
at  some  length,  stating  that,  in  her  judgment,  it  consisted 
of  a  conviction  of  one's  own  sinfulness  and  weakness,  and 
personal  need  of  the  Savior  for  strength  and  support;  that 
views  of  mere  doctrine  might  and  would  differ,  but  when 
one  was  really  brought  to  feel  his  need  of  Divine  help, 
and  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  strength  and 
guidance,  it  was  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  having  been 
born  again.  This  was  the  substance  of  her  reply.  When 
she  had  concluded,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  thoughtful  for  a 
few  moments.  He  at  length  said,  very  earnestly :  '  If  what 
you  have  told  me  is  really  a  correct  view  of  this  great  sub- 
ject, I  think  I  can  say  with  sincerity,  that  I  hope  I  am  a 
Christian.  I  had  lived,'  he  continued,  'until  my  boy 
Willie  died,  without  realizing  fully  these  things.  That 
blow  overwhelmed  me.  It  showed  me  my  weakness  as  I 
had  never  felt  it  before,  and  if  I  can  take  what  you  have 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  629 

stated  as  a  test,  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  I  know  some- 
thing of  that  change  of  which  you  speak;  and  I  will  fur- 
ther add,  that  it  has  been  my  intention  for  some  time,  at 
a  suitable  opportunity,  to  make  a  public  religious  pro- 
fession.' " 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Gurley,  of  the  New  York  Avenue 
Presbyterian  Church,  which  the  President  and  his 
family  attended  in  Washington,  bore  the  same  tes- 
timony as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  purpose  "  to  make  a  pub- 
lic profession  "  of  his  religion. 

One,  long  a  helper  at  the  White  House,  writes  in 
this  enthusiastic  way  about  Mr.  Lincoln  : — 

"  He  reached  forth  one  of  his  long  arms,  and  took  a 
small  Bible  from  a  stand  near  the  head  of  the  sofa,  opened 
the  pages  of  the  holy  Book,  and  soon  was  absorbed  in 
reading  them.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  passed,  and  on  glanc- 
ing at  the  sofa  the  face  of  the  President  seemed  more 
cheerful.  The  dejected  look  was  gone,  and  the  counte- 
nance was  lighted  up  with  new  resolution  and  hope.  The 
change  was  so  marked  that  I  could  not  but  wonder  at  it, 
and  wonder  led  to  the  desire  to  know  what  book  of  the 
Bible  afforded  so  much  comfort  to  the  reader.  Making 
the  search  for  a  missing  article  an  excuse,  I  walked  gently 
around  the  sofii,  and  looking  into  the  open  book,  I  dis- 
covered that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  reading  that  divine  com- 
forter. Job.  He  read  with  Christian  eagerness,  and  the 
courage  and  hope  that  he  derived  from  the  inspired  pages 
made  him  a  new  man.  I  almost  imagined  tiiat  I  could 
hear  the  Lord  speaking  to  him  from  out  the  whirlwind 
of  battle:  'Gird  up  thy  loins  now  like  a  man:  I  will  de- 
mand of  thee,  and  declare  thou  unto  me.'  What  a  sublime 
picture  was  this  !  A  ruler  of  a  mighty  Nation  going  to 
the  pages  of  the  Bible  with  simple  Christian  earnestness  for 
comfort  and  courage,  and  finding  both  in  the  darkest  hours 


630  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

of  a  Nation's  calamity.     Ponder  it,  O  ye  scoffers  at  God's 
Holy  Word,  and  then  hang  your  heads  for  very  shame  I" 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Gurley  wrote  of  him : — 

'  "  I  speak  what  I  know,  and  testify  what  I  have  often 
heard  him  say,  when  I  affirm  the  guidance  and  the  mercy 
of  God  were  the  props  on  which  he  humbly  and  habitu- 
ally leaned ;  and  that  his  abiding  confidence  in  God  and 
in  the  final  triumph  of  truth  and  righteousness  through 
him  and  for  his  sake,  was  his  noblest  virtue,  his  grandest 
principle,  the  secret  alike  of  his  strength,  his  patience,  and 
his  success." 

Between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Bishop  Simpson  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  there  appears  to  have  sprung  up 
ii,  kind  of  mutual  attachment  in  the  last  years  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  life.     Of  him  the  Bishop  said : — 

"  The  constant  recognition  of  God  in  his  public  docu- 
ments shows  how  completely  his  mind  was  under  the  do- 
minion of  religious  faith.  This  is  never  a  commonplace 
formalism  nor  a  misplaced  cant.  To  satisfy  ourselves  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  Christian  character,  we  have  no  need  to 
resort  to  apocryphal  stories  that  illustrate  the  assurance 
of  his  victories  quite  as  much  as  the  simplicity  of  his  faith  ; 
we  have  but  to  follow  internal  evidences,  as  the  work- 
ings of  his  soul  reveal  themselves  through  his  own  pub- 
lished utterances 

"  As  a  ruler,  I  doubt  if  any  President  has  ever  showed 
such  trust  in  God,  or  in  public  documents  so  frequently 
referred  to  Divine  aid.  Often  did  he  remark  to  friends 
and  delegations  that  his  hope  for  our  success  rested  in  his 
"conviction  that  God  would  bless  our  efforts,  because  we 
were  trying  to  do  right.  To  the  address  of  a  large  relig- 
ious body,  he  replied :  *  Thanks  be  unto  God,  who  in  our 
national  trials  giveth  us  the  Churches!'  To  a  minister 
who  said  'he  hoped  the  Lord  was  on  our  side,'  he  replied 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  631 

'that  it  gave  him  no  concern  whether  the  Lord  was  on 
our  side  or  not/  for  he  added,  '  I  know  the  Lord  is  always 
on  the  side  of  right ; '  and  with  deep  feeling  added,  *  but 
God  is  my  witness  that  it  is  my  constant  anxiety  and 
prayer  that  both  myself  and  this  Nation  should  be  on 
the  Lord's  side.' " 

Now,  what  more  need  be  said?  Is  the  case  not 
clear?  Is  the  case  not  made?  Do  not  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's own  words,  during  his  Presidency,  prove  the 
change  which  had  taken  place  in  his  religious  char- 
acter? Does  not  the  evidence  of  his  Christian  friends 
finally  leave  him  among  them?  Mr.  Lincoln  tells 
himself  how  and  when  he  began  to  place  himself 
on  the  Christian  side.  In  his  new  sphere  in  such  a 
time,  he  left  his  former  associations  behind  him,  and 
the  new  influences  bearing  upon  him  from  all  sides 
he  felt  warmly  and  kindly.  The  hands  of  the  Chris- 
tian friends  of  the  Republic  and  of  freedom  were 
everywhere  stretched  out  to  hold  him  up;  their 
prayers  and  their  earnest  friendship ;  their  patriotism 
gained  his  good-will  and  drew  him  to  them.  His 
son's  death,  and  the  carnage  of  war,  and,  perhaps, 
the  threats  upon  his  own  life,  and  the  prayers  of 
Christians  for  his  preservation  he  could  not  with- 
stand. And  so,  not  against  his  will,  as  the  dreadful 
war  progressed,  his  sympathies  and  preferences  were 
developed,  and  he  entered  the  current  whose  course 
he  believed  to  be  shaped  by  Him  who  does  all 
things  best.  From  this  position  he  never  had  an 
opportunity  to  swerve,  even  if  he  had  had  the  in- 
clination. 


632  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

With  the  origin  and  principles  of  Christianity  he 
now  had  no  quarrel.     He  said : — 

"  I  have  never  united  myself  to  any  Church,  because 
I  have  found  difficulty  in  giving  my  assent,  without  men- 
tal reservation,  to  the  long,  complicated  statemeuts  of 
Christian  doctrine  which  characterize  their  'Articles  of 
Belief  and  'Confessions  of  Faith.'  When  any  Church 
will  inscribe  over  its  altar,  as  its  sole  qualification  for 
membership,  the  Savior's  condensed  statement  of  the  sub- 
stance of  both  Law  and  Gospel,  *Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  that 
Church  will  I  join  with  all  my  heart  and  all  my  soul." 

What  manner  of  man  could  boldly  uphold  this 
grand  principle  of  Christianity  ?  From  what  other 
source  could  he  have  derived  the  immortal  saying 
with  which  he  entered  upon  the  closing  scenes  of  his 
life,  "  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all  ? " 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  633 


CMAPTER   XXVIII. 

ANOTHER    PICTURE— MR.    LINCOLN'S    COURTSHIPS— MARY 
TODD— THE  PUGNACIOUS  JAMES  SHIELDS. 

ALTHOUGH  Lincol«n  was  always  reasonably  fond 
of  the  society  of  girls  and  women,  it  does  not 
appear  that  they  were  objects  of  especial  thought  to 
him,  or  that  he  had  any  sleepless  nights  on  account 
of  them,  until  long  after  he  became  one  of  the  noted 
men  of  New  Salem.  He  seemed  to  regard  himself 
more  in  the  light  of  a  teacher  and  fun-maker  for  the 
young  women  with  whom  he  associated  in  Spencer 
County,  Indiana.  Most  women  liked  Lincoln,  as  a 
boy,  and  he  was  really  fond  of  making  himself  use- 
ful to  them,  and  relieving  them  of  many  a  disagree- 
able burden.  But,  according  to  some  veracious 
writers,  he  found  his  main  delight,  in  this  association, 
in  the  privilege  he  took  to  "  tease  the  girls."  The 
purport  of  til  is  expression  may  be  readily  inferred 
from  the  general  representation  of  his  character  at 
this  period,  as  seen  in  this  history.  Much  of  his 
doggerel  poetry  had  women  for  its  theme,  and  the 
privilege  he  assumed  and  the  latitude  of  his  positions 
were  indicative  of  the  social  vulgarity  in  which  he 
was  reared. 

The  facts  in  the  following  account  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's first  "  love  affair  "  are  borrowed  from  Lamon's 
"  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 


634  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

Ann  Rutledge  was  the  daughter  of  James  Rut- 
ledge,  a  native  of  South  Carolina,  and  one  of  the  first, 
or  perhaps  the  first,  of  the  .early  emigrants  to  the 
country  about  New  Salem.  Ann  was  courted  by  two 
of  the  neighbors,  partners  in  business,  and  finally 
chose  John  McNeil,,  or  John  McNamar,  the  latter 
being  his  true  name.  But  McNamar,  after  finding 
himself  in  good  circumstances  with  a  good  home, 
somewhat  mysteriously  left  on  a  long  journey  to  the 
East.  At  first  he  wrote  to  Ann,  but  finally  stopped, 
and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  him.  He  had  re- 
vealed to  her  his  true  name,  and  his  object  in  using 
another,  and  told  her  that  he  would  return,  and  this 
he  did,  but  too  late  to  see  her.  Her  faith  in  his 
promises  was  never  seriously  shaken,  but  the  mystery 
and  uncertainty  involved  in  his  absence  and  silence 
loosened  her  sense  of  obligation  to  her  own  promises. 
In  the  meantime  Lincoln  was  much  in  her  company, 
at  her  father's  house  and  at  the  homes  of  one  or 
more  of  the  neighbors.  He  had  "fallen  desperately 
in  love  with  her,"  and  she  learned  after  a  time  to 
love  him  in  turn.  Finally  she  consented  to  marry 
him,  and  only  waited  for  him  to  finish  his  law  stud- 
ies, and  for  something  to  occur  to  relieve  her  from 
her  pledge  to  McNamar.  Her  friends  and  relatives 
were  in  favor  of  her  immediate  marriage  to  Lincoln, 
and  her  own  inclinations  and  judgment  began  to  dis- 
pose her  to  take  their  advice.  But  an  event  soon 
occurred  which  put  an  end  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  hopes,  as 
it  was  also  on  the  verge  of  destroying  his  reason 
and  life. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  635 

In  the  Summer  of  1835  poor  Ann  showed  signs 
of  declining  health,  and  late  in  August  she  died.  It 
was  said  that  her  disease  was  "brain-fever,"  and  no 
doubt  this  was  true  enough  as  far  as  it  went,  but 
many  of  the  curious,  sympathizing  friends  said  she 
died  of  a  "broken  heart." 

In  the  last  moments  she  called  Lincoln  to  her  bed- 
side. What  passed  between  them  may  readily  be 
imagined,  but  it  has  never  been  told.  Her  death  un- 
manned him,  and  when  her  body  was  placed  in  the 
grave  at  Concord,  his  reason  fled,  and  his  friends 
thought  he  was  lost.  But  after  watching  him  with 
care  at  the  home  of  Bowlin  Greene,  one  of  his  ad- 
miring friends,  for  a  few  weeks,  they  jigain  allowed 
him  to  resume  his  surveyor's  compass  and  law-books. 

Ann  was  a  good  and  beautiful  woman,  and  the 
most  refined  that  Lincoln  had  ever  met  at  that 
period.  The  following  is  his  own  description  of  her 
in  answer  to  the  question  of  a  friend  many  years 
afterwards  as  to  his  running  wild  over  the  death  of 
Ann  Rutledge : — 

"  I  did  really.  I  ran  off  the  track.  It  was  my  first. 
I  loved  the  woman  dearly.  She  was  a  handsome  girl ; 
would  have  made  a  good,  loving  wife;  was  natural  and 
quite  intellectual,  though  not  highly  educated.  I  did  hon- 
estly and  truly  love  the  girl,  and  think  often,  often  of 
her  now." 

The  whole  story  of  Ann  Rutledge,  so  minutely 
told  by  Wm.  H.  Herndon  and  Mr.  Lamon,  is  no  bet- 
ter authenticated  than  this  language  of  Mr.  Lincoln's. 
And  I  must  stake  this  language  against  Mr.  Hern- 


636  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

don's  oft-repeated  statement  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  heart 
was  buried  with  the  body  of  Ann  Rutledge,  and  that 
he  never  loved  another  woman.  Is  not  Mr.  Lincoln's 
statement  substantiallj^  that  of  thousands  of  other 
men  on  the  same  subject?  Does  it  not  show  that  it 
was  his  firsts  and  that  he  had  long  ago  learned  to 
look  upon  it  as  others  had  looked  upon  \}si%\x  first? 

Another  case  from  the  same  authorities  will  now 
be  given  which  must  also  subserve  the  purpose  of 
depreciating  their  views  of  the  influence  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge  over  Mr.  Lincoln's  heart,  and  of  his  very  mod- 
erate affection  for  Mary  Todd,  his  wife.  Only  the 
very  next  fall  after  the  death  of  poor  Ann  Rutledge, 
Mary  S.  Owens,  of  Kentucky,  came  to  visit  or  live 
with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Bennett  Able  (Abel),  near  New 
Salem.  Able  and  his  wife  were  numbered  among 
Lincoln's  warm  friends.  They  had  known  all  about 
his  affair  with  Miss  Rutledge,  and  instead  of  being 
disgusted  with  his  unmanly  folly  and  weakness  after 
her  death,  they  seemed  to  sympathize  with  and 
value  him  still  higher. 

In  1833  Miss  Owens  had  made  a  short  visit  to 
Illinois,  and  then  Lincoln  saw  her  for  the  first  time. 
Mrs.  Able  went  to  Kentucky  in  the  Summer  of  1836, 
and  before  starting  she  and  Lincoln  had  a  conversa- 
tion about  Mary,  and  Lincoln  said  that  if  she  would 
bring  Mary  back  with  her  he  would  marry  her.  Mis. 
Able  was  really  in  favor  of  this  scheme,  and  when 
she  returned,  Mary  was  with  her.  Lincoln  was  vain 
enough  to  think  at  once  that  Mary  had  not  been 
successful  in  Kentucky,  and  had  actually  come  out 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  637 

to  marry  him.  He,  however,  set  about  the  work  of 
courtship  immediately,  and  from  the  outset  looked 
upon  Mary  as  his  wife,  although  he  was  modest 
enough  not  to  tell  her  so.  She  may  have  been  lack- 
ing in  some  of  the  fine,  gentle  traits  which  character- 
ized Ann  Rutledge,  but  she  had  a  better  education, 
was  very  beautiful,  had  a  fine  head,  and  a  magnifi- 
cent and  attractive  body  weighing  a  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds.  In  mental  culture  and  everything  else  she 
was  more  than  a  match  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  this  she 
was  perhaps,  able  to  recognize  at  once.  Still  it  is 
probable  that  she  really  had  some  desire  to  marry 
Lincoln  at  that  time,  and  subsequently  had  good 
reason  to  regret  that  she  did  not.  But  as  it  was, 
matters  did  not  go  smoothly  with  them.  She  felt 
too  sure  of  her  hold  on  Lincoln,  and  he  labored 
under  the  same  error  as  to  her.  So,  as  might  haue 
been  expected,  they  quarreled,  and  in  1838  she  left 
Illinois,  and  they  never  met  again.  The  only  com- 
munication she  ever  had  from  Lincoln  after  her  re- 
turn to  Kentucky  was  to  the  effect  that  he  con- 
sidered her  a  great  fool  for  not  staying  out  West  and 
marrying  him.  As  the  world,  to  a  great  extent, 
looks  upon  these  matters,  however  erroneous  and 
blind  its  judgment,  Lincoln's  banter  would  receive  a 
very  general  vote  of  approval.  In  1866,  Miss  Owens, 
then  married,  wrote  several  letters  to  Wm.  H.  Hern- 
don  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  affair  with  her.  One  of 
them  reads  as  follows : 

"Dear  Sir, — Really  you  catechise  me  in  true  lawyer 
style;  but  I  feel  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  excuse  me 


638  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

if  I  decline  answering  all  your  questions  in  detail,  being 
well  assured  that  few  women  would  have  ceded  as  much 
as  I  have  under  all  the  circumstances. 

"You  say  you  have  heard  why  our  acquaintance  ter- 
minated as  it  did.  I,  too,  have  heard  the  same  bit  of 
gossip;  but  I  never  used  the  remark  which  Madam  Rumor 
says  I  did  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  think  I  did  on  one  occasion 
say  to  my  sister,  who  was  very  anxious  for  us  to  be  mar- 
ried, that  I  thought  Mr.  Lincoln  deficient  in  those  little 
links  which  make  up  the  chain  of  woman's  happiness;  at 
least  it  was  so  in  my  case.  Not  that  I  believed  it  pro- 
ceeded from  a  lack  of  goodness  of  heart;  but  his  training 
had  been  different  from  mine,  hence  there  was  not  that 
congeniality  which  would  otherwise  have  existed. 

"  From  his  own  showing,  you  perceive  tluit  his  heart 
and  hand  were  at  my  disposal;  and  I  suppose  that  my 
feelings  were  not  sufficiently  enlisted  to  have  the  matter 
consummated.  About  the  beginning  of  the  year  1838  I 
left  Illinois,  at  which  time  our  acquaintance  and  corre- 
spondence ceased  without  ever  again  being  renewed. 

"  My  father,  who  resided  in  Greene  County,  Kentucky, 
was  a  gentleman  of  considerable  means,  and  I  am  per- 
suaded that  few  persons  placed  a  higher  estimate  on  edu- 
cation than  he  did.  Respectfully  yours, 

"  Maey  S ." 

The  saying  of  "  Madam  Rumor,"  about  which 
Miss  Owens  here  speaks,  and  which  she'  denies,  was 
to  the  effect  that  she  had  said  to  Lincoln,  "You 
would  not  make  a  good  husband,  Abe."  With  a  little 
excusable  vanity  Miss  Owens  says  that  from  Lincoln's 
own  showing  it  can  be  seen  by  any  one  that  he  was 
wholly  at  her  disposal.  She  refers  to  his  many 
letters  to  her.  When  she  was  in  Illinois,  Lincoln 
was  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  from  the  State 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  639 

Capital  he  wrote  quite  often  to  her,  as  he  continued 
to  do  after  he  had  located  at  Springfield  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession. 

The  two  following  letters  from  this  correspond- 
ence indicate  clearly  enough  what  Miss  Owens  could 
not  have  escaped  in  her  own  reflections  on  the 
subject,  that  they  were  written  by  a  man  not  in  love 
with  her,  and  while  he  was  holding  to  his  honor,  was 
trying  to  pave  the  way  out  of  a  position  in  which  he 
felt  restless  and  dissatisfied.  Neither  the  language 
nor  method  of  these  letters  is  that  of  the  lover;  nor, 
indeed,  do  they  quite  comport  with  the  character  of 
an  honest  man,  under  the  circumstances.  Still  in 
these  very  letters  Mr.  Lincoln  pleads  his  honest  and 
manly  intentions,  and  back  of  this,  perhaps,  no  man 
has  a  right,  or  finds  a  right,  to  go  in  the  case.  These 
letters,  however,  bear  the  general  appearance  of  hav- 
ing been  written  by  one  of  the  most  unselfish  men 
in  all  the  world ;  and  how  far  this  appearance  is  true 
may  be  better  judged  after  the  reading  of  another 
letter  which  shall  also  be  given,  in  part : — 

"Springfield,  May  7,  1837. 
"  Miss  Mary  S.  Owens  : — 

"  Friend  Mary, — I  have  commenced  two  letters  to 

send  you  before  this,  both  of  which  displeased  me  before 

I   got  half  done,  and  so   I  tore   them   up.     The  first   I 

thought  was  not  serious  enough,  and  the  second  was  on 

the  other  extreme.     I  shall  send  this,  turn  out  as  it  may. 

This  thing  of  living  in  Springfield  is  rather  a  dull  business, 

after  all ;  at  least  it  is  so  to  me.     I  am  quite  as  lonesome 

here  as  I   ever  was  anywhere  in  my  life.     I  have  been 

spoken  to  by  but  one  woman  since  I  've  been  here,  and 


640  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

should  not  have  been  by  her,  if  she  could  have  avoided  it. 
I  've  never  been  to  church  yet,  and  probably  shall  not  be 
soon.  I  stay  away  because  I  am  conscious  I  should  not 
know  how  to  behave  myself. 

"  I  am  often  thinking  about  what  we  said  of  your 
co'ming  to  live  at  Springfield.  I  am  afraid  you  would  not 
be  satisfied.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  flourishing  about  in 
carriages  here,  which  it  would  be  your  doom  to  see  with- 
out sharing  in  it.  You  would  have  to  be  poor,  Avithout 
the  means  of  hiding  your  poverty.  Do  you  believe  you 
could  bear  that  patiently  ?  Whatever  woman  may  cast  her 
lot  Avith  mine,  should  any  ever  do  so,  it  is  my  intention  to 
do  all  in  my  power  to  make  her  happy  and  contented;  and 
there  is  nothing  I  can  imagine  that  would  make  me  more 
unhappy  than  to  fail  in  the  effort.  I  know  I  should  be 
much  happier  with  you  than  the  way  I  am,  provided  I  saw 
no  signs  of  discontent  in  you.  What  you  have  said  to«me 
may  have  been  in  the  way  of  jest,  or  I  may  have  misun- 
derstood it.  If  so,  then  let  it  be  forgotten;  if  otherwise, 
I  much  wish  you  would  think  seriously  before  you  decide. 
For  my  part,  I  have  already  decided.  What  I  have  said, 
I  will  most  positively  abide  by,  provided  you  wish  it.  My 
opinion  is,  that  you  had  better  not  do  it.  You  have  not 
been  accustomed  to  hardship,  and  it  may  be  more  severe 
than  you  now  imagine.  I  know  you  are  capable  of  think- 
ing correctly  on  any  subject;  and,  if  you  deliberate  ma- 
turely upon  this  before  you  decide,  then  I  am  willing  to 
abide  your  decision. 

"You  must  write  me  a  good,  long  letter  after  you  get 
this.  You  have  nothing  else  to  do ;  and,  though  it  might 
not  seem  interesting  to  you  after  you  have  written  it,  it 
would  be  a  good  deal  of  company  to  me  in  this  *  busy 
wilderness.' 

"Tell  your  sister,  I  do  not  want  to  hear  any  more 
about  selling  out  and  moving.  That  gives  me  the  hypo 
whenever  I  think  of  it.     Yours,  etc.,  Lincoln." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  641 

"Springfield,  August  16,  1837. 

"  Friend  Mary, — You  will  no  doubt  think  it  rather 
strange  that  I  should  write  you  a  letter  on  the  same  day 
on  which  we  parted;  and  I  can  only  account  for  it  by  sup- 
posing that  seeing  you  lately  makes  me  think  of  you  raorfe 
than  usual ;  while  at  our  late  meeting  we  had  but  few  ex- 
pressions of  thoughts.  You  must  know  that  I  can  not  see 
you  or  think  of  you  with  entire  indifference ;  and  yet  it 
may  be  that  you  are  mistaken  in  regard  to  what  my  real 
feelings  toward  you  are.  If  I  knew  you  were  not,  I  would 
not  trouble  you  with  this  letter.  Perhaps  any  other  man 
would  know  enough  without  further  information ;  but  I 
consider  it  my  peculiar  right  to  plead  ignorance,  and 
your  bounden  duty  to  allow  the  plea.  I  want,  in  all  cases, 
to  do  right;  and  most  particularly  so,  in  all  cases  with 
women.  I  want,  at  this  particular  time,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  to  do  right  with  you ;  and  if  I  knew  it  would  be 
doing  right,  as  I  rather  suspect  it  would,  to  let  you  alone, 
I  would  do  it.  And  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  matter 
as  plain  as  possible,  I  now  say  that  you  can  now  drop  the 
subject,  dismiss  your  thoughts  (if  you  ever  had  any)  from 
me  forever,  and  leave  this  letter  unanswered,  without  call- 
ing forth  one  accusing  murmur  from  me.  And  I  will  even 
go  further,  and  say  that  if  it  will  add  anything  to  your 
comfort  or  peace  of  mind  to  do  so,  it  is  my  sincere  wish 
that  you  should.  Do  not  understand  by  this  that  I  wish 
to  cut  your  acquaintance.  I  mean  no  such  thing.  What 
I  do  wish  is,  that  our  further  acquaintance  shall  depend 
upon  yourself.  If  such  further  acquaintance  would  con- 
stitute nothing  to  your  happiness,  I  am  sure  it  would  not 
to  mine.  If  you  feel  yourself  in  any  degree  bound  to  me, 
I  am  now  willing  to  release  you,  provided  you  wish  it; 
while  on  the  other  hand,  I  am  willing,  and  even  anxious, 
to  bind  you  faster,  if  I  can  be  convinced  that  it  will,  in 
any  considerable  degree,  add  to  your  happiness.  This, 
indeed,  is  the  whole  question  with  me.     Nothing  would 

41— Q 


642  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

make  me  more  miserable  than  to  believe  you  miserable ; 
nothiDg  more  happy  than  to  know  you  were  so. 

"  In  what  I  have  now  said,  1  think  I  can  not  be  mis- 
understood ;  and  to  make  myself  understood  is  the  only 
object  of  this  letter. 

"  If  it  suits  you  better  not  to  answer  this,  farewell.  A 
long  life  and  a  merry  one  attend  you.  But  if  you  con- 
clude to  write  back,  speak  as  plainly  as  I  do.  There  can 
be  neither  harm  nor  danger  in  saying  to  me  anything  you 
think,  just  in  the  manner  you  think  it.  My  respects  to 
your  sister.  Your  friend,  Lincoln." 

While  I  do  not  consider  myself  under  obligations 
to  enter  into  an  analysis  of  these  letters,  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  to  use  the  freedom  I  claim  in  treating  all 
things,  men,  and  subjects  of  every  kind,  to  say  here 
that  I  think  them  mean,  mean  without  mitigation. 
I  have  said  what  these  letters  meant,  what  they  were 
designed  to  do.  How  many  men  could  be  found  to 
put  a  different  construction  upon  them  ?  They  were 
not  "love-letters;"  they  were  not  the  letters  of  a  man 
who  was  in  love.  That  they  were  devised  for  the 
purpose  I  have  intimated  is  plainly  enough  proven 
by  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  words  in  a  vulgar  and  exceed- 
ingly unmanly  letter  written  in  reference  to  his  affairs 
with  Miss  Owens,  in  the  spring  of  1838,  to  the  wife 
of  0.  H.  Browning.  He  begins  this  letter  by  calling 
Mrs.  Browning  "Dear  Madam,"  and  closes  with  the 
words,  "Your  sincere  friend,  A.  Lincoln."  Miss 
Owens,  who  was  every  way  his  "  equal,"  vulgarly 
speaking,  and  to  whom  he  had  made  a  proposition  to 
become  his  wife,  he  addressed  as  "  Friend  Mary,"  and 
signed  himself  "Yours,  etc.,  Lincoln." 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  643 

With  her  he  had  studiously  avoided  the  use  of 
the  word  "dear"  even.  I  say  studiously  because 
he  says  that  he  had  written  and  torn  up  two  letters 
before  he  was  satisfied  with  what  he  had  written. 
Is  that  the  way  sincere  men  write  "  love-letters  ?" 
From  the  heart  the  mouth  speaks  with  ease.  In  his 
Browning  letter,  which  is  too  unmanly  to  be  bor- 
rowed and  used  here  as  a  whole,  after  telling  Mrs. 
Browning  all  about  the  way  Miss  Owens  was  brought 
to  Illinois  by  her  sister  on  a  bargain  with  him  to 
marry  her,  and  of  his  astonishment  on  hearing  of  her 
arrival,  and  what  his  reflections  were  as  to  her  being 
entirely  too  willing,  Mr.  Lincoln  says: — 

"  All  this  occurred  to  me  on  hearing  of  her  arrival  in 
the  neighborhood ;  for,  be  it  remembered,  I  had  not  yet 
seen  her,  except  about  three  years  previously,  as  above 
mentioned.  In  a  few  days  we  had  an  interview;  and,  al- 
though I  had  seen  her  before,  she  did  not  look  as  my 
imagination  had  pictured  her.  I  knew  she  was  oversize, 
but  she  now  appeared  a  fair  match  for  Falstaff.  I  knew 
she  was  called  an  'old  maid,'  and  I  felt  no  donbj;  of  the 
truth  of  at  least  half  of  the  appellation;  but  now,  when  I 
beheld  her,  I  could  not  for  my  life  avoid  thinking  of  my 
mother;  and  this  not  from  withered  features,  for  her  skin 
was  too  full  of  fat  to  permit  of  its  contracting  into  wrink- 
les, but  from  her  want  of  teeth,  weather-beaten  a])pear- 
ance  in  general,  and  from  a  kind  of  notion  that  ran  in  my 
head  that  nothing  could  have  commenced  at  the  size  of 
infancy  and  reached  her  present  bulk  in  less  than  tliirty- 
five  or  forty  years;  and,  in  short,  I  was  not  at  all  pleased 
with  her."     \ 

Then,  after  telling  of  how  he  thought  himself 
bound  to  carry  out  the  contract  or  understanding  he 


644  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

had  with  Miss  Owens's  sister,  whose  admirable  char- 
acter and  qualities  were  unmistakable,  he  writes . — 

"  At  once  I  determined  to  consider  her  my  wife ;  and, 
this  done,  all  my  powers  of  discovery  were  put  to  work 
in  search  of  perfections  in  her  which  might  be  fairly  set 
off  against  her  defects.  I  tried  to  imagine  her  handsome, 
which,  but  for  her  unfortunate  corpulency,  was  actually 
true.  Exclusive  of  this,  no  woman  that  I  have  ever  seen 
has  SI  finer  face.  I  also  tried  to  convince  myself  that 
the  mind  was  much  more  to  be  valued  than  the  person ; 
and  in  this  she  was  not  inferior,  as  I  could  discover,  to 
any  with  whom  I  had  been  acquainted. 

"  Shortly  after  this,  without  attempting  to  come  to  any 
positive  understanding  with  her,  I  set  out  for  Vandalin, 
when  and  where  you  first  saw  me.  During  my  stay  there 
I  had  letters  from  her  which  did  not  change  my  opinion 
of  either  her  intellect  or  intention,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
confirmed  it  in  both. 

"All  this  while,  although  I  was  fixed,  ^  firm  as  ^  the 
surge-repelling  rock,'  in  my  resolution,  I  found  I  was 
continually  repenting  the  rashness  which  had  led  me  to 
make  it.  Through  life  I  have  been  in  no  bondage,  either 
real  or  imaginary,  from  the  thralldom  of  which  I  so  much 
desired  to  be  free." 

The  opportunity  must  not  be  lost  here  to  say  that 
there  was  some  apology  in  1837  for  "the  want  of 
teeth  "  in  this  country  beauty.  While  it  is  really 
unrefined  and  indelicate  enough  for  people,  men  or 
women,  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  one  another 
with  decayed  and  offensive  looking  teeth  or  without 
teeth,  in  1882,  the  same  can  not  be  said  of  that  early 
date  in  this  country. 

If  the   pretty   and   intelligent  Miss    Owens   was 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  645 

toothless,  she  was  no  worse  off  than  most  of  her 
neighbors,  who  had  not  been  naturally  more  fortu- 
nate. The  fastidiousness  Mr.  Lincoln  exhibited  on 
this  point  was  hardly  in  keeping  with  some  things 
in  himself,  and  certainly  not  with  the  condition  of 
the  times,  or  the  spirit  of  the  lover,  who  is  never  a 
critic.  After  his  attempts  "to  procrastinate  the 
evil  day,"  as  he  says  to  Mrs.  Browning,  and  his  start- 
ling letters.  Miss  Owens  had  nothing  left  her  but  to 
say  no.  What  woman  of  sense  or  spirit  could  have 
done  otherwise  ?  Here  was  a  man  who  did  not  even 
address  her  as  kindly  as  he  did  other  women,  who 
said  substantially  to  her:  I'll  have  you,  if  you  desire 
it,  but  I  think  you  better  not  desire  it.  I  '11  stand 
up  to  what  I  have  appeared  to  mean,  but  you'll  find 
it  hard  to  go  along  with  me.  I  would  like  to  get  rid 
of  you,  but  it  shall  be  as  you  say ;  if  you  are  willing 
to  "let  the  subject  drop,  I  won't  mind  it  in  the  least ; 
the  fact  is,  I  have  no  interest  in  the  matter  at  all  on 
my  own  account,  it  is  simply  as  you  feel  and  say 
about  it.  See  now  how  transparent  this  one-sided 
matter  was  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  account  of  it  in  the 
letter  to  Mrs.  Browning.     He  says: — 

"  After  all  my  suffering  on  this  deeply  interesting  sub- 
ject, here  I  am,  wholly,  unexpectedly,  completely,  out  of 
the  '  scrape ; '  and  now  I  want  to  know  if  you  can  guess 
how  I  got  out  of  it,  out  clear  in  every  sense  of  the  term; 
no  violation  of  word,  honor,  or  conscience.  I  do  n't  be- 
lieve  you  can  guess,  and  so  I  might  as  well  tell  you  at 
once.  As  the  lawyer  says,  it  was  done  in  the  manner 
following,  to  wit:  after  I  had  delayed  the  matter  as  long 
as  I  thought  I  could  in  honor  do  (which,  by  the  way,  had 


646  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

brought  me  round  into  the  last  fall),  I  coijclnded  I  might 
as  well  bring  it  to  a  consummation,  without  further  de- 
lay; and  so  I  mustered  ray  resolution  and  made  the  pro- 
posal to  her  direct;  but,  shocking  to  relate,  she  answered, 
No.  At  first  I  supposed  she  did  it  through  an  affectation 
of  modesty,  which  I  thought  but  ill  became  her  under  the 
circumstances  of  her  case  ;  but  on  my  renewal  of  the 
charge,  I  found  she  repelled  it  with  greater  firmness  than 
before.  I  tried  it  again  and  again,  but  with  the  same  suc- 
cess, or  rather  with  the  same  want  of  success. 

"  I  finally  was  forced  to  give  it  up ;  at  which  I  very 
unexpectedly  found  myself  mortified  almost  beyond  en- 
durance. I  was  mortified,  it  seemed  to  me,  in  a  hundred 
different  ways.  My  vanity  was  deeply  wounded  by  the 
reflection  that  I  had  so  long  been  too  stupid  to  discover 
her  intentions,  and  at  the  same  time  never  doubting  that 
I  understood  them  perfectly;  and  also  that  she  whom  I 
had  taught  myself  to  believe  nobody  else  would  have,  had 
actually  rejected  me  with  all  my  fancied  greatness.  And 
to  cap  the  whole,  I  then,  for  the  first  time,  began  to  sus- 
pect that  I  was  really  a  little  in  love  with  her.  But* let 
it  all  go.  I'll  try  and  outlive  it.  Others  have  been  made 
fools  of  by  the  girls;  but  this  can  never  with  truth  be 
said  of  me.  I  most  emphatically,  in  this  instance,  made 
a  fool  of  myself.  I  have  now  come  to  the  conclusion 
never  again  to  think  of  marrying,  and  for  this  reason  I 
can  never  be  satisfied  with  any  one  who  would  be  block- 
head enough  to  have  me." 

From  the  preceding  pages  the  reader  may,  with- 
out further  light  on  the  subject,  be  able  to  make  up 
his  mind  as  to  how  insurable  Mr.  Lincoln's  heart 
wounds  had  been,  and  as  to  whether  the  memory  of 
Ann  Rutledge  ever  could  have  interfered  seriously 
with  his  affection  for  Mary  Todd,  or  prevented  him 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  647 

from  acting  as  an  unincumbered  and  honorable  man 
should  do  towards  his  own  wife.  If  his  insanity  had 
been  very  deep  over  the  irreparable  loss  of  Ann  Rut- 
ledge,  how  could  he  have,  so  soon  after,  started  into 
such  a  business  with  Mary  S.  Owens  ?  And  so  soon 
after  this  with  Miss  Owens,  how  could  he  have  set 
up  another  affiiir  of  the  kind  with  Mary  Todd  ? 

In  a  book  of  Kentucky  biographies,  I  find  this 
brief  sketch  of  Mrs.  Lincoln's  father  : — 

"Robert  S.  Todd,  banker,  was  born  in  1792.  He  was 
for  many  years  clerk  of  the  Kentucky  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives ;  was  elected  to  the  Legislature  from  Fayette 
County,  in  1841 ;  was  re-elected,  and  in  1845  was  elected 
to  the  State  Senate,  serving  four  years,  and  was  a  candi- 
date for  re-election  at  the  time  of  his  death  ;  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Lexington  branch  of  the  Bank  of  Kentucky, 
from  its  establishment  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  and  useful  men  of  Fayette 
County,  and  died  July  16,  1849.  Among  his  surviving 
children  is  the  widow  of  President  Abraham  Lincoln." 

In  1839  Mary  Todd,  went  to  Springfield,  Illinois, 
to  live  with  her  sister,  who  was  the  wife  of  Ninian 
W.  Edwards,  a  son  of  old  Governor  Edwards.  She 
was  at  this  time  about  twenty-one  years  old,  had  re- 
ceived a  very  good  education,  was  more  than  ordina- 
rily bright  and  witty,  was  high-strung  and  full  of 
ffimily  pride,  was  attractive  and  brilliant  in  manners, 
had  a  plump  and  shapely  form,  with  a  face  which, 
while  it  was  not  void  of  beauty,  was  expressive  of 
no  small  degree  of  spirit  and  character.  No  person 
could  have  looked  at  Mary  Todd's  face  at  that  time 
without  seeing  that  she  was  a  woman  of  high,  and 


648  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

perhaps  at  times,  ungovernable  temper.  This  un- 
fortunate trait  is  plain  enough  in  all  her  portraits  as 
Mrs.  Lincoln.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  it  ever  be- 
came the  object  of  her  especial  care  to  educate  or 
eradicate  it. 

Not  long  after  her  arrival  at  Springfield,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln met  her,  and  notwithstanding  his  recent  affair 
with  the  other  Kentucky  girl,  and  "  his  heart  buried 
with  Ann  Rutledge,"  he  was  captivated  at  once.  Her 
wit,  manners,  talking  powers,  and  general  sprightli- 
ness  carried  him  away.  But  other  men  were  not  be- 
hind Mr.  Lincoln  in  admiration  for  this  proud  and 
spirited  girl.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  one  of  her 
suitors ;  and  it  is  maintained  that  little  Douglas  be- 
came so  earnest  in  the  matter  as  to  propose  to  her  to 
become  his  wife.  But  Mary  said.  No.  And  for  this 
step  only  two  reasons  have  been  assigned.  One,  that 
she  detested  the  moral  character  of  Mr.  Doughis,  and 
the  other  that  she  designed  marrying  a  man  who 
would  some  day  be  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  circumstances  of  her  life  do  show,  too,  that  her 
heart  was  consulted  in  this  momentous  affair.  Al- 
though her  unrensonable  and  bad  temper  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  her  leaving  the  home  of  her  father 
and  step-mother  in  Kentucky,  yet  she  was  not  with- 
out a  peculiar  moral  strength.  Still  it  must  be  said 
that  in  this,  and  her  religious  training,  there  is  not  a 
great  deal  to  touch  the  admiration  or  startle  the 
kindly  feelings  of  enthusiasm. 

She  had  said  before  leaving  Kentucky,  perhaps  in 
one  of  her  fits  of  fun  or  bad  humor,  that  she  would 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  649 

terminate  her  apparently  objectless  career  as  the  wife 
of  a  President;  and  it  will  be  seen  that,  in  political 
foresight,  she  deserved  no  little  consideration.  While 
she  never  lost  sight  of  this  goal,  she  did  not  sacrifice 
her  better  feelings  or  the  moral  standard  to  which 
she  held  with  some  consistency. 

Mr.  Lamon  attributes  to  her  this  sentiment :  "  I 
wrould  rather  marry  a  good  man,  a  man  of  mind,  with 
hope  and  bright  prospects  ahead  for  position,  fame, 
and  power,  than  to  marry  all  the  horses,  gold,  and 
bones  in  the  v^orld."  Here  are  no  mean,  and  cer- 
tainly no  ordinary  aspirations,  and  the  woman  who 
could  utter  and  maintain  them  is  worthy  of  the 
respect  of  her  race. 

Lincoln  was  soon  involved  in  another  affair  of 
honor  and  love  with  this  vivacious  woman,  and,  in  fact, 
proposed  marriage  to  her,  and  was  accepted.  Her 
Illinois  friends  were  all  in  favor  of  her  marrying  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  she  con- 
sulted her  relatives  in  Kentucky  as  to  her  intentions, 
in  any  way. 

So  matters  progressed  until  a  daughter  of  Gov- 
ernor Edwards  appeared  on  the  ground,  also  designing 
to  spend  some  time  in  the  home  of  her  brother.  She 
was  a  rare  beauty,  and  as  a  charmer  at  once  stepped 
to  the  head  in  the  estimation  of  the  men.  Her  ap- 
pearance threw  poor  Lincoln  into  a  great  state  of  per- 
turbation. Indeed  he  fell  in  love  with  her  at  once,  and 
began  to  mourn  the  misfortune  or  fate  which  had 
thrown  him  with  Mary  Todd.  His  frequent  visits  to 
Mr.  Edwards's,  where  both  girls  stayed,  were  really 


650  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

on  account  of  his  passion  for  Matilda  Edwards.  But 
his  sense  of  honor  never  deserted  him,  and  Miss 
Todd  with  "  that  recognizance  and  pledge  of  love 
which  I  first  gave  her,"  was  always  before  him.  So 
he  never  breathed  a  word  of  his  feelings  to  the  beauty 
who  had  taught  him  to  doubt  the  propriety  of  his  re- 
lations to  Mary  Todd.  But  his  case  became  more 
and  more  desperate  as  the  moments  flew,  and  when 
the  time  came,  in  January,  1841,  for  him  to  be  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Todd,  he  failed  to  appear,  and  the  event 
was  indefinitely  postponed. 

In  the  Winter  of  1840,  as  has  been  told,  he  did 
not  attend  the  Legislature.  His  mind  was  again  un- 
hinged, and  now  more  desperately  than  by  reason  of 
the  loss  of  Ann  Rutledge.  At  this  emergency  Joshua 
F.  Speed  came  to  the  rescue,  and  took  him  down 
to  Kentucky,  where  in  due  time  he  was  able  to  rec- 
ognize '  Richard  as  himself  again.' 

Joshua  Fry  Speed,  this  life-long  friend  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  was  for  several  years  a  merchant  in 
Springfield,  and  for  the  greater  part  of  that  time  was 
a  "  room-mate  "  of  Lincoln.  In  the  Winter  of  1840 
he  sold  his  business  out,  and  returned  to  Kentucky, 
taking  Lincoln,  who  had  just  reached  the  last  danger- 
ous crisis  in  his  love  affiiirs,  with  him.  An  attach- 
ment sprang  up  between  them  which  was  never 
changed  or  lost.  Mr.  Lincoln  frequently  urged  Speed 
to  accept  an  office  under  his  Administration ;  but  this 
he  did  not  see  fit  to  do,  although  by  their  friendly 
relations,  he  was  influential  in  various  ways  during 
the  Rebellion,  for  which  he  had  no  sympathy. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  651 

In  love  affairs  Speed  was  about  as  unsatisfactory 
to  himself  as  Lincoln  was  to  himself  or  anybody 
else,  and,  singularly  enough^  this  man  who  had  nothing 
to  rest  upon,  and  who  could  not  control  and  regulate 
himself,  when  he  returned  to  Illinois,  undertook  to 
set  Speed  right.  Speed  was  working  himself  into  in- 
sanity over  the  thought  that  he  was  on  the  point  of 
marrying  a  woman  for  whom  he  had  not  the  right 
kind  of  feelings.  They  interchanged  many  remaika- 
ble  letters  about  these  matters,  and  through  Lincoln's 
aid  Speed  was  enabled  to  see  his  way  clearly,  was 
married,  and  became  a  model  husband,  and  as  happy 
as  his  anxious  friend  could  desire.  And  Speed's  suc- 
cess in  this  untried  and  serious  business  of  marrying, 
which  they  both  dreaded  so  much,  gave  poor  Lincoln 
great  courage  in  bracing  himself  for  the  step  he  felt 
he  ought  to  take  at  no  distant  day. 

It  is  apparent  from  his  letters  to  Speed  that  this 
man,  who  was  accustomed  to  fall  into  fits  of  insanity 
on  account  of  his  own  wandering  loves,  was  able  to 
give  wonderfully  good  advice  to  others.  He  was 
rapidly  profiting  himself  by  these  letters  to  Speed. 
They  served  to  start  in  him  a  course  of  reasoning 
which  a  man  with  a  truer  and  higher  Christian  code 
could  have  drawn  with  satisfaction  and  certainty  from 
another  source.  It  is  evident  from  these  and  other 
letters  to  Speed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  slowly  drifting 
into  the  opinion  that  he  had  acted  the  fool.  Speed 
had  been  in  a  condition  like  his  own,  and  yet  his 
marriage  had  already  turned  out  well.  Mr.  Lincoln 
now  began  to  have  some  strong  feelings  of  doubt  as 


652  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

to  the  fairness  of  his  treatment  of  her  whose  name 
he  wrote  with  a  long  dash.  If  all  men  would  act  as 
these  two  did,  the  social  jifFairs  of  the  world  would 
be  Avretched  beyond  repair.  The  uppermost  thing  in 
all  these  letters,  given  to  the  world  by  Mr.  Lamon, 
seems  at  first  view  to  be  self-happiness.  And  the 
one-sided  and  unphilosophical  way  of  reaching  this 
happiness  is  taken  as  the  right  way ;  that  is,  of  con- 
sulting their  own  predilections,  their  own  whims  and 
fancies,  their  own  selfhoods.  The  highest  degree  of 
happiness  is  attained  through  the  happiness  of  others, 
in  rendering  others  happy.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
of  this.  It  may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  doubted  as 
to  whether  there  can  be  intelligent  and  refined  hap- 
piness, anything  but  brute  happiness,  which  is  not 
reached  in  the  way  of  making  others  happy.  The 
very  term  happiness  is  of  extremely  doubtful  use,  so 
much  of  selfishness  or  merely  animal  gratification 
does  there  seem  to  be  in  it.  The  end  of  man  is  not 
self-happiness.  Happiness  is  not  the  grand  object  of 
life.  The  man  who  works  for  this  end  and  purpose, 
has  the  wrong  principle  foremost,  and  has  no  reason 
to  complain  of  failure  at  last.  All  life  is  founded  on 
use.  To  be  useful  is  the  great,  the  paramount  object 
of  being.  A  life  of  perfect,  harmonious  usefulness 
is  blissful.  The  instrumentalities  and  subjects  of 
this  life  are  out  of  self,  or,  at  least,  look  primarily  to 
others.  So  far  as  happiness  is  the  result,  natural 
result,  unsought,  unpremeditated,  unthought-of  result, 
of  words,  deeds,  affections,  thoughts,  and  life  which 
have   the   welfare  of   the  world,  the   betterment  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  653 

others,  or  the  growth  and  expansion  of  the  beautiful, 
the  good,  and  the  true  here  and  hereafter,  in  self 
and  out  of  self  in  others,  as  the  end,  it  is  enduring 
and  worthy  of  respect. 

Although  these  letters  to  Speed  have  some  things 
admirable  about  them,  little  else  besides  the  wretched 
vein  of  honor  can  be  found  in  all  Mr.  Lincoln's  court- 
ships which  appeal  to  the  better  judgment,  or  can  do 
ought  but  detract  from  the  truer,  and  better,  and 
wiser  Lincoln  of  twenty  years  later. 

The  more  Mr.  Lincoln  heard  and  talked  of  Speed's 
successful  matrimonial  experiments,  and  thought  of 
his  own  very  strange  conduct,  the  more  he  began  to 
think  of  her  who  was  equally  interested  in  the  case 
with  himself.  The  title  of  "  Honest  Abe "  was  in 
jeopardy  too,  even  in  his  own  estimation ;  and  before 
he  knew  the  fortunate  result  of  Speed's  trial,  he  be- 
gan to  reflect  more  seriously  of  repairing  the  injury 
he  had  done  to  Mary  Todd,  as  well  as  to  discover 
whether  he  was  not  bound  to  her  by  his  affections 
and  inclinations  as  much  as  he  was  by  his  honor. 
She  had  suffered  by  his  conduct,  and  yet  she  had 
released  him  from  his  obligations,  without  a  change 
of  feeling  on  her  part. 

In  Lincoln's  affair  with  Mary  Todd  he  acknowl- 
edged to  Speed  that  he  had  only  needed  such  a  guide 
as  he  had  proved  to  be  to  Speed.  And  Mrs.  Edwards 
held  that  Lincoln  was  mistaken  in  his  supposed 
attachment  to  her  husband's  sister,  that  he  was  really 
in  love  with  Mary.  Lincoln's  superstition,  as  he 
unwisely  called  it,  also  came  to  his  assistance.     He 


654  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

had  been  providentially  involved  in  Speed's  marriage 
and  restoration  to  good  sense,  and  why  should  Mary 
Todd  not  be  providentially  concerned  in  his  future 
welfare  ?  That  he  had  good  reason  at  a  later  date 
to  believe  that  she  was,  remains  to  be  seen.  The 
Edwardses  were  now  opposed  to  Mary  and  her  un- 
certain lover  renewing  their  former  relation,  arguing 
that  they  were  by  education,  disposition,  etc.,  un- 
suited ;  but  this  opposition  was  not  successful,  as, 
during  the  summer  and  fall  of  1842,  they  met  secretly, 
and  soon  revived  their  determination  to  marry. 
Several  things  of  more  than  ordinary  interest  occurred 
during  this  time  to  render  their  mutual  obligations 
and  inclinations  apparent,  and  so  without  more  ado 
about  it  Mr.  Lincoln  got  a  license  on  the  4th  of 
November,  1842,  and  on  the  same  day  he  and  Mary 
Todd  became  no  more  "twain,  but  one  flesh." 

It  is  probably  true  that  Mr.  Lincoln  considered 
himself  a  martyr  to  his  honor  in  marrying  Mary. 
He  would  have  to  do  it;  that  was  simply  the  state 
of  the  case.  It  was  his  duty,  his  duty.  That  was 
the  way  he  viewed  the  case,  and  he  was  indiscreet  or 
unmanly  enough  to  say  so.  There  are  so  many 
martyrs  to  duty,  and  it  is  such  a  consolation  for  them 
to  make  it  known,  and  be  regarded  as  honor-and- 
duty  martyrs.  I  am  inclined  to  the  belief  that  a 
very  large  per  cent  of  men,  when  it  comes  to  the 
final  issue,  are  exercised  in  their  own  minds  more  or 
less  like  Lincoln  was,  and  consider  it  a  condescension 
and  sacrifice  for  them  to  marry  the  women  they 
have   courted,  and  who,  to   a  great   extent,  are   so 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  655 

utterly  unselfish  as  to  give  their  lives  with  consum- 
mate delight,  and  without  a  regret,  to  the  men  who, 
they  feel,  are  the  very  soul  of  unwavering  love  and 
honor.  I  am  free  to  say  that  the  sacrifice  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  so  far  as  moral  character,  and  clean, 
decent,  and  correct  habits  of  life  are  concerned,  is  on 
the  side  of  the  women.  But  this  theme  opens  into 
various  channels  and  is  quite  endless,  and  is  not  fur- 
ther pertinent  to  the  subject  matter  here. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  the  rising  lawyer,  and  his  wife 
went  to  live  at  first  at  the  "Globe  Tavern"  at  the 
enormous  expense  of  two  dollars  a  week,  each, 
for  board  and  lodging ;  and  at  last  this  villainous 
matter  of  courting  and  going  crazy  was  ended  for- 
ever. Mary  had  a  great  task  befoi'e  her.  It  was 
not  only  to  make  her  husband  "  happy,"  but  also  to 
make  him  President.  She  had  married  a  good  man, 
or  one  who  would  be  good ;  one  with  mind,  honor, 
and  bright  prospects,  and  her  principles  were  gratified 
as  well  as  her  feelings.  "But,  0!  he  was  so  long, 
awkward,  and  ugly." 

Lincoln  soon  found  that  he  was  much  better  off 
than  he  expected,  and  discovered  that  he  really  loved 
his  wife,  and  was  "superstitious"  and  philosophical 
enough  to  settle  down  calmly  to  the  work  of  life, 
mere  world-life,  in  which  they  were  now  both  equally 
concerned  ;  although  he  never  was  quite  free,  perhaps, 
of  some  sad  thoughts  and  moments  about  his  marriage- 
martyrdom. 

Mary  Todd,  among  her  attractive  qualities,  ex- 
hibited unusual  power    as  a  satirical   and  burlesque 


656  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

writer.  Whatever  may  be  said  for  or  against  this 
quality,  Mrs.  Lincoln  had  rare  ability  in  that  way, 
and  could  have  made  her  mark  in  the  world  by  using 
it.  As  it  was,  she  did  enough  to  get  Lincoln  into 
the  most  disreputable  aifair  of  his  life,  leaving  out 
of  consideration  his  courtships. 

During  August  and  the  early  part  of  September, 
1842,  she  wrote  several  papers  which  were  published 
in  "  The  Sangamon  Journal  "  at  Springfield.  These 
papers  seemed  to  have  two  objects,  one  to  ridicule 
James  Shields,  who  was  the  State  Auditor,  and  the 
other  to  have  fun.  Or,  perhaps,  more  strictly  speak- 
ing, James  Shields  being  a  wonderfully  good  subject, 
was  merely  taken  as  the  instrument  for  letting  out 
the  fun.  It  was  believed  that  Shields  was  just  thin- 
skinned  and  shallow  enough  to  raise  a  great  bluster, 
and  so  furnish  new  material  for  the  contemplated 
sport.  The  editor  of  "  The  Journal,"  while  seeing 
the  danger  in  the  mischief,  could  not  resist  the  temp- 
tation to  print  such  cunningly  devised  political  wit. 
Some  of  the  articles  verged  on  the  vulgar  very  de- 
cidedly; some  of  them  were  written  with  no  little 
skill  in  blank  verse,  or  rhyme;  and  all  of  them  were 
exceedingly  well  executed.  While  they  did  not 
attack  the  private  character  of  Shields,  they  placed 
him  in  a  very  ridiculous  light,  and  this  was  more 
than  the  Irishman  could  stand.  The  result  was  that 
he  sent  General  John  D.  Whiteside,  of  Black  Hawk 
War  memory,  to  the  editor  of  "The  Journal'  to  de- 
mand the  name  of  the  author  of  the  slanderous  papers 
from  the  "  Lost  Townships,"  the  residence  assumed 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  657 

by  Mary,  who  signed  herself '' Rebecca"  or  "Cath- 
leen."  Here  is  the  way  she  describes  the  effect  upon 
her  nervous  system  from  being  apprised  of  the  des- 
perate turn  affairs  were  likely  to  take  on  account  of 
her  caustic  pen : — 

"  Lost  Townships,  Sep.  8,  1842. 
"  Dear  Mr.  Printer, — I  was  a-standin '  at  the  spring 
yesterday  a-washin'  out  butter,  when  I  seed  Jim  Snooks 
a-ridin'  up  towards  the  house  for  very  life  like,  when,  jist 
as  I  was  a-wonderin '  what  on  airth  was  the  matter  with 
him,  he  stops  suddenly,  and  ses  he,  'Aunt  Becca,  here's 
somethin'  for  you,'  and  with  that  he  hands  out  your  let- 
ter. Well,  you  see,  I  steps  out  towards  him,  not  thinkin' 
that  I  had  both  hands  full  of  butter  ;*and  seein'  I  couldn't 
take  the  letter,  you  know,  without  greasin'  it,  I  ses,  'Jim, 
jist  you  open  it  and  read  it  for  me.'  Well,  Jim  opens  it,  and 
reads  it;  and  would  you  believe  it,  Mr.  Editor,  I  was  so 
completely  dumfounded  and  turned  into  stone,  that  there  I 
stood  in  the  sun  a-workin'  the  butter,  and  it  a-runnin'  on 
the  ground,  while  he  read  the  letter,  that  I  never  thunk 
what  I  was  about  till  the  hull  on't  run  melted  on  the 
ground,  and  was  lost.  Now,  sir,  it's  not  for  the  butter, 
nor  the  price  of  the  butter,  but,  the  Lord  have  massy  on 
us,  I  wouldn't  have  sich  another  fright  for  a  whole  firkin 
of  it.  Why,  when  I  found  out  that  it  was  the  man  what 
Jeff  seed  down  to  the  fair  that  had  demanded  the  author 
of  my  letters,  threatenin'  to  take  personal  satisfaction  of 
the  writer,  I  was  so  skart  that  I  tho't  I  should  quill- 
wheel  right  where  I  was." 

And  from  this  introduction  "  Aunt  Bccca"  again 
assails  Shields  unsparingly  and  effectively.  In  the 
meantime  something  had  to  be  done  in  the  business 
part  of  the  affair.  Lincoln  was  again  quietly  and 
rather  secretly  visiting  Mary,  and  no  doubt  from  his 

42~Q. 


658  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

conversations  to  some  extent  she  had  been  sharplj'' 
appropriating  material  for  the  writings  from  the 
''Lost  Townships."  He  was,  probably,  greatlj'  pleased 
and  amused  with  the  whole  performance,  and  was 
ready  to  back  her  in  it,  if  he  did  not  directly  aid 
her.  So  in  "  honor  "  he  felt  himself  bound  to  stand 
for  her,  and  accordingly  his  name  was  sent  to  the 
irate  James  as  the  author  of  one  of  the  letters,  but 
only  one.  To  assume  the  responsibility  for  one  of 
them  was  enough  to  satisfy  the  case.  Lincoln  was 
at  Tremont  at  this  juncture ;  but  time  was  important, 
scarred  "honor"  was  crying  for  "satisfaction,"  and 
so  the  brave  Irishman  set  out  with  his  man.  General 
Whiteside,  on  a  journey  to  Tremont  to  have  the  busi- 
ness settled  at  once.  E.  H.  Merryman  and  William 
Butler  hearing  of  his  movements,  mounted  their 
horses,  and  started  in  hot  haste  to  put  Lincoln  in 
charge  of  the  facts,  and  see  that  he  had  fair  play. 
They  reached  Tremont  in  advance  of  Shields  and  his 
man.  But  soon  after  his  arrival  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  17th  of  September,  Shields  sent  a  letter  to  Lin- 
coln demanding  an  apology  and  a  "  full  and  absolute 
retraction"  with  the  suggestive  statement  that  this 
would  prevent  consequences  which  he  would  greatly 
regret  himself.  His  note  was  in  such  insulting  lan- 
guage that  Lincoln  refused  to  consider  his  demand 
until  that  was  sufficiently  modified,  and  took  occasion 
to  say  that  he  too  should  regret  the  "  consequences  " 
to  which  the  pugnacious  Irishman  alluded.  But 
Shields  was  full  of  wrath,  and  wanted  blood,  and  so 
matters   went   on.     Here  are  Mr.  Lincoln's  instruc- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  659 

tions  for  the  guidance  of  his  friends,  which  I  borrow 
from  Lamon : — 

"In  case  Whiteside  shall  signify  a  wish  to  adjust  this 
affair  without  further  difficulty,  let  him  know,  tiiat,  if  the 
present  papers  be  withdrawn,  and  a  note  from  Mr.  Shields 
asking  to  know  if  I  am  the  author  of  the  articles  of  which 
he  complains,  and  asking  that  I  shall  make  him  gentle- 
manly satisfaction  if  I  am  the  author,  and  this  without 
menace  or  dictation  as  to  what  that  satisfaction  shall  be,  a 
pledge  is  made  that  the  following  answer  shall  be  given: — 

"I  did  write  the  'Lost  Townships'  letter  which  ap- 
peared in  'The  Journal'  of  the  2d  inst.,  but  had  no  par- 
ticipation in  any  form  in  any  other  article  alluding  to  you. 
I  wrote  that  wholly  for  political  effect.  I  had  no  inten- 
tion of  injuring  your  personal  or  private  character  or 
standing  as  a  man  or  a  gentleman  ;  and  I  did  not  then 
think,  and  do  not  now  think,  that  that  article  could  produce 
or  has*  produced,  that  effect  against  you  ;  and,  had  I  an- 
ticipated such  an  effect,  would  have  forborne  to  write  it. 
And  I  will  add,  that  your  conduct  towards  me,  so  far  as  I 
know,  had  always  been  gentlemanly,  and  that  I  had  no 
personal  pique  against  you,  and  no  cause  for  any. 

"If  this  should  be  done,  I  leave  it  with  you  to  manage 
what  shall  and  what  shall  not  be  published. 

"  If  nothing  like  this  is  done,  the  preliminaries  of  the 
fight  are  to  be :  — 

"  1st.  Weapons. — Cavalry  broad-swords  of  the  largest 
size,  precisely  equal  in  all  respects,  and  such  as  now  used 
by  the  cavalry  company  at  Jacksonville. 

"  2d.  Position. — A  plank  ten  feet  long,  and  from  nine  to 
twelve  inches  broad,  to  be  firmly  fixed  on  edge  on  the 
ground  as  the  line  between  us,  which  neither  is  to  pass 
his  foot  over  upon  forfeit  of  his  life.  Next,  a  line 
drawn  on  the  ground  on  either  (each)  side  of  said 
plank  and    parallel    with  it,  each  at  the    distance  of  the 


660  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

whole  length  of  the  sword  and  three  feet  additional  from 
the  plank,  and  the  passing  of  his  own  such  line  by 
either  party  during  the  fight  shall  be  deemed  a  surrender 
of  the  contest. 

"3d.  Time. — On  Thursday  evening,  at  five  o'clock,  if  you 
can  get  it  so ;  but  in  no  case  to  be  at  a  greater  distance  of 
time  than  Friday  evening  at  five  o'clock. 

"4th.  Plaee. — Within  three  miles  of  Alton,  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  river,  the  particular  spot  to  be  agreed 
upon  by  you. 

"Any  preliminary  details  coming  within  the  above 
rules,  you  are  at  liberty  to  make  at  your  discretion;  but 
you  are  in  no  case  to  swerve  from  these  rules,  or  to  pass 
beyond  their  limits." 

At  the  appointed  time,  no  adjustment  appearing 
possible,  these  foes  proceeded  to  Alton,  and  on  the 
22d  of  September,  crossed  over  into  Missouri;  White- 
side with  Shields  as  second  man,  and  E.  H.  Merry- 
man  with  Lincoln  ns  his  second.  But  Wm.  Butler, 
A.  T,  Bledsoe,  John  J.  Hardin,  and  other  friends  were 
on  hand,  determined  to  effect  some  kind  of  settle- 
ment. This  they  finally  succeeded  in  doing  by  leav- 
ing the  matter  to  the  arbitration  of  several  of  the 
friends,  they  making  for  Lincoln  substantially  the  ex- 
planation he  had  ,'iuthorized.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  abso- 
lutely opposed  to  dueling,  and  very  well  knew  from 
the  first  that  there  would  be  no  duel  in  this  case. 
And  here  is  where  the  ridiculousness  of  the  whole 
thing  appears.  The  gory  Shields  and  his  friends 
overlooked  this  entirely.  The  cavalry  broad-swords 
were  procured,  and  these  were  of  from  thirty-six  to 
forty  inch  blades ;  then,  under  Mr.  Lincoln's  require- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  661 

ment,  the  combatants  were  not  only  to  stand  the 
length  of  the  two  swords  apart,  but  also  six  feet 
further,  thus  actually  placing  them,  at  least  twelve 
feet  a  part.  With  this  arrangement  the  most  they 
could  have  done,  would  have  been  to  touch  the  points 
of  their  swords,  if  Shields  could  have  measured  half 
of  that  distance  with  his  arm  and  sword.  Lincoln 
had  made  these  impossible  provisions  in  full  view  of 
this  funny  side  of  the  case.  Even  if  the  distance 
between  the  men  had  not  been  so  preposterously 
great,  the  poor  Irishman  would  have  had  no  chance 
without  crossing  the  board,  which  would  have  for- 
feited his  life,  while  the  long  body  and  arm  of 
Lincoln  might  have  rendered  his  own  position 
disagreeable. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  conduct  in  this  matter  was  deliberate 
and  premeditated,  and  this  it  was  that  took  from  him 
the  odium  of  stooping  to  the  savage  and  unchristian 
"  code."  With  him  Mr.  Shields's  case  began  in  fun, 
and  ended  in  fun.  And  now  for  the  application  of 
this  affair  to  the  really  important  matter  he  then  had 
in  hand,  and  which  his  Illinois  biographers  think  was 
his  saddest  misfortune,  a  burden  under  which  he  was 
never  quite  able  to  stand  erect;  that  is,  his  associa- 
tion with  Mary  Todd. 

Now,  Lincoln  valued  Miss  Todd's  ability  to  write, 
and,  perhaps,  had  no  little  to  do  in  instigating  her  to 
write  the  letters  which  led  to  the  difficulty  with 
Shields.  Then,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether,  he 
had  any  part  in  writing  even  the  one  letter  for  which 
he  was   willing   to   hold   himself   responsible.      He 


662  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

thought  his  relations  with  Mary  made  it  is  his  duty 
to  stand  in  her  place,  to  shield  her. 

When  Speed  was  in  abject  misery  about  the  un- 
certainty of  his  affection  for  the  woman  he  was 
going  to  marry,  and  yet  was  frantic  over  the  idea  of 
her  death,  Lincoln  had  argued  that  Speed's  anxiety 
for  her  recovery  and  health  utterly  contradicted  the 
suspicion  that  he  did  not  love  her.  And  now,  who 
will  say  that  his  own  assumption  of  responsibility  for 
Mary  Todd's  misdoings,  and  all  this  fuss  about  a  duel 
with  General  Shields,  did  not  point  to  his  affection 
for  her,  and  desire  to  be  responsible  for  her  ?  If  he 
had  felt  that  she  was  destined  to  be  such  a  burden 
to  him,  and  that  marriage  with  her  was  so  repugnant 
to  him,  was  this  not  an  excellent  occasion  to  relieve 
himself  of  all  these  troubles  ?  Could  he  not  have 
chosen  rifles,  and  put  an  end  to  his  struggles  by  giv- 
ing Shields  an  opportunity  to  kill  him  ?  He  evi- 
dently feared  death  more  than  he  did  marriage.  He 
had  no  notion  of  dying  then,  nor  in  any  such  a  way. 
He  and  Miss  Todd  had  the  same  object  in  view. 
They  both  believed  in  his  ultimate  success  and 
'' greatness;"  she  even  more  firmly  than  he.  They 
were  mainly  congenial,  and  especially  united  on  the 
great  purpose;  and  if  it  can  not  be  shown  that  she 
really  made  him  President,  is  it,  after  all,  so  clear 
that  he  was  more  useful  to  her  than  she  was  to  him  ?• 
The  real  test  of  marriage  is  in  this  very  word,  useful. 
The  highest  marriage  is  doubtless  that,  in  Avhich  the 
partners  attain  the  highest  degree  of  usefulness, 
working  from  kindred  and  genial  motives.     And  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  663 

highest  possible  affection  one  person  can  display  for 
another,  is  in  leading  him  to  be  the  highest  and  best 
he  possibly  can  be ;  in  being  useful  to  him  in  the 
ways  thnt  will  make  him  the  most  successful,  the  most 
intellectual,  the  most  refined,  the  most  virtuous,  and 
the  most  beneficial  in  this  life  with  a  view  to  another. 


664  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

MR.    LINCOLN    AT    HOME    AND   AMONG   HIS    BOOKS  — THE 
LINCOLNS  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE— THE  MISTRESS. 

MR.  LINCOLN  now  settled  down  with  more 
earnestness  than  he  had  ever  felt  to  the  work 
of  life.  His  letters  to  friends  soon  changed  in  tone. 
Not  six  months  after  his  marriage  he  wrote  to  Speed 
with  great  vivacity  and  good  humor  as  to  the  uncer- 
tainty yet  of  his  having  a  namesake  soon  at  Spring- 
field.    In  a  letter  to  Speed  in  1846  he  wrote  : — 

"We  have  another  bov,  born  the  10th  of  March.  He 
is  very  much  such  a  child  as  Bob  was  at  his  age,  rather  of 
a  longer  order.  Bob  is  short  and  low,  and  I  expect  always 
will  be.  He  talks  very  plainly,  almost  as  plainly  as  any- 
body. He  is  quite  smart  enough.  I  sometimes  fear  that 
he  is  one  of  the  little  rare-ripe  sort,  that  are  smarter  at 
about  five  than  ever  after.  He  has  a  great  deal  of  that 
sort  of  mischief  that  is  the  offspring  of  much  animal 
spirits.  Since  I  began  this  letter,  a  messenger  came  to  tell 
me  Bob  was  lost;  but  by  the  time  I  reached  the  house  his 
mother  had  found  him,  and  had  him  whipped ;  and  by 
now,  very  likely  he  is  run  away  again.  Mary  has  read 
your  letter,  and  wishes  to  be  remembered  to  Mrs.  S.  and 
you,  in  which  I  most  sincerely  join." 

Mrs.  Lincoln  did  not  accompany  her  husband  to 
Washington  during  his  service  in  Congress,  but 
remained  at  home  in  care  of  her  children.     But  no 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN*  665 

other  person  in  the  world  watched  his  course  with 
such  deep  concern  as  she  did.  Nor  was  the  judg- 
ment of  any  other,  not  excepting  the  discerning  politi- 
cians, so  reliable  as  to  what  his  course  should  be. 
When  he  had  established  the  reputation  of  "Honest 
Old  Abe"  nothing  was  so  important  to  him  as  to 
keep  this  reputation.  It  was  a  distinction  which 
appealed  to  the  feelings  of  the  masses;  and  nobody 
liked  it  better  than  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  would  have 
done  so  much  to  aid  him  in  preserving  it,  both  for  its 
own  sake  and  for  the  stock  of  political  capital  there 
was  in  it.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  could  have  been  ap- 
pointed Governor  of  Oregon,  in  1852,  and  sent 
beyond  the  line  where  Presidents  may  be  born  or 
live,  she  interposed  her  veto,  on  the  best  of  grounds. 
And  here  her  judgment  was  opposed  to  that  of  her 
husband  and  all  his  other  friends.  They  thought  it 
was  a  long  stride  in  the  way  he  wanted  to  go.  She 
believed  it  was  the  road  away  from  the  Presidency, 
if  not  to  oblivion.  And  she  was  right.  When  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  officiously  announced  in  1846  as  a  can- 
didate for  the  Legislature,  during  his  absence  from 
Springfield,  she  went  to  the  newspaper  office  and  had 
the  announcement  taken  from  the  paper.  She  did 
not  think  his  reputation  would  gain  anything  by  this 
step,  and  here  for  the  first  time  her  judgment  was 
better  than  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  wise  political 
friends.  When  her  husband  was  at  last,  or  so  soon, 
nominated  for  the  Presidency,  all  her  four  children 
had  been  born,  and  one  of  them  was  "  dead."  When 
Mr.  Lincoln  himself  heard  of  the  nomination  his  first 


666  'LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

desire  was  to  tell  it  to  her.  She  was  equally  con- 
cerned with  him  in  it.  She  had  kept  his  eye  and 
conduct  turned  toward  this  event  now  consummated, 
with  what  good  fortune  as  to  the  final  result,  she 
never  doubted.  When  admirers,  flatterers,  sight- 
seers, office-seekers,  and  friends  began  to  roll  in  upon 
him,  she  was  found  equal  to  the  emergency.  She 
had  thought  and  dreamed  of  its  possibility,  and  was 
not  unprepared  to  do  her  part.  And  both  herself 
and  her  children  gained  the  favorable  opinion  of 
those  who  viewed  them  in  the  light  of  the  family 
of  the  future  President.  Mrs.  Lincoln's  bad  temper 
was,  perhaps,  her  greatest  misfortune.  And  if  she 
ever  tried  to  improve  and  regulate  it,  her  success  was 
hardly  noteworthy.  Like  many  another  foolish 
woman,  one  of  her  faults  was  in  standing  in  the  way 
of  her  husband  in  the  correction  of  wrong  steps  in 
their  children.  And  here  she  undertook  to  do  with 
her  tongue,  in  the  presence  of  the  children,  what  she 
was  not  likely  to  accomplish  in  Jiny  other  way.  She 
claimed  for  herself  the  prerogative  of  whipping  or 
pampering  the  children  as  her  whim  or  temper  ran; 
but  she  considered  Mr.  Lincoln's  disciplinary  proceed- 
ings often  very  inopportune,  and  met  them  by  tongue- 
lashing.  Indeed  this  unfortunate  temper  made  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  at  times,  a  regular  Xanthippe.  But  Lincoln 
soon  became  master  of  himself,  and  his  ^ood  sense 
and  good-humor  were  never  known  to  forsake  him. 
Amidst  her  passion-storms  no  unkind  words  ever 
escaped  him.  He  knew  what  her  wretched  temper 
meant,   and    waited  for  the  sunshine  which  he   well 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  667 

understood  would  come  from  behind  the  clouds.  Al- 
though in  most  respects  a  domestic  woman,  Mrs. 
Lincoln  was  not,  perhaps,  a  model  housekeeper.  In 
the  ornamenting  of  home  in  the  thousand  little  ways 
known  to  woman's  skillful  hand,  she  did  not  tnke 
much  interest.  The  outside  of  her  house,  especially 
received  little  of  her  attention.  Still,  there  was  some 
apology  for  her  in  the  utter  indifference  of  her  hus- 
band for  all  these  things.  He  w'as  a  good-natured, 
kind,  home  man,  and  to  that  extent  a  domestic  man ; 
but  for  the  thousand  little  things  that  make  home 
charming  to  the  cultured  and  refined,  he  had  little 
respect,  or  rather  he  was  so  taken  up  with  other 
things  that  he  had  little  inclination  to  care  for  these. 
So,  between  them,  their  home  at  Springfield  was  not 
a  very  inviting  place.  It  had  a  garden  connected 
with  it,  and  this  Mr.  Lincoln  attempted  to  cultivate 
a  year  or  two  with  his  own  hands,  and  then  dropped 
it  forever.  The  yard  was  also  neglected.  Few 
plants  or  trees  ornamented  it;  and  no  refined  and 
delicate  hands  took 

"The  earth  whole  for  their  toy," 
not  forgetting  that 

"  The  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

If  flowers  or  shrubs  were  planted  they  were  soon 
left  to  themselves  to  die  or  live  as  they  could.  The 
sight  of  nil  these  things  was  pleasing  and  grateful 
to  both  of  them,  but  they  had  no  taste  or  disposition 
to  cultivate  or  care  for  them.  Their  lot  had  a  stable 
on  it,  and  there  Mr.  Lincoln  kept  his  horse,  and  there 


668  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

for  a  time  he  sheltered  a  cow.  The  cow  he  milked 
himself,  and  the  horse  he  fed,  curried,  and  harnessed. 
And  all  this  work  he  did  poorly.  Little  was  well 
done  in  all  these  things  at  the  home  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
His  affections  were  some  place  else.  His  wife  was 
also  contented  or  concerned  with  other  matters.  The 
present  and  its  little  things  were  neglected  in  waiting 
for  and  dreaming  of  the  great  ones  to  come.  Here 
is  one  of  Mr.  Lamon's  pictures  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his 
Illinois  home: — 

"  On  a  winter's  morning,  this  man  could  be  seen  wend- 
ing his  way  to  the  market,  with  a  basket  on  his  arm,  and 
a  little  boy  at  his  side,  whose  small  feet  rattled  and  pat-  ■ 
tered  over  the  ice-bound  pavement,  attempting  to  make  up 
by  the  number  of  his  short  steps  for  the  long  strides  of 
his  father.  The  little  fellow  jerked  at  the  bony  hand 
which  held  his,  and  prattled  and  questioned,  begged  and 
grew  petulant,  in  a  vain  effort  to  make  his  father  talk  to 
him.  But  the  latter  was  probably  unconscious  of  the 
other's  existence,  and  stalked  on,  absorbed  in  his  own  re- 
flections. He  wore  on  such  occasions  an  old  gray  shawl, 
rolled  into  a  coil,  and  wrapped  like  a  rope  around  his 
neck.  The  rest  of  his  clothes  were  (was)  in  keeping.  '  He 
did  not  walk  cunningly,  Indian-like,  but  cautiously  and 
firmly.'  His  tread  was  even  and  strong.  He  was  a  little 
pigeon-toed  ;  and  this,  with  another  peculiarity,  made  his 
walk  very  singular.  He  set  his  whole  foot  flat  on  the 
ground,  and  in  turn  lifted  it  all  at  once,  not  resting  mo- 
mentarily upon  the  toe  as  the  foot  rose,  nor  upon  the 
heel  as  it  fell.  He  never  wore  his  shoes  out  at  the  heel 
and  the  toe  more,  as  most  men  do,  than  at  the  middle  of 
the  sole ;  yet  his  gait  was  not  altogether  awkward,  and 
there  was  manifest  physical  power  in  his  step.  As  he 
moved   along   thus  silent,  abstracted,  his  thoughts  dimly 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         .  669 

reflected  in  his  sharp  face,  men  turned  to  look  after  him 
as  an  object  of  sympathy,  as  well  as  curiosity.  '  His  mel- 
ancholy,' in  the  language  of  Mr.  Herndon,  '  dripped  from 
him  as  he  walked.'  If,  however,  he  met  a  friend  in  the 
street,  and  was  roused  by  a  loud,  hearty  *  good-morning, 
Lincoln  !'  he  would  grasp  the  friend's  hand  with  one  or 
both  of  his  own,  and,  with  his  usual  expression  of'  howdy, 
howdy/  would  detain  him  to  hear  a  story  ;  something  re- 
minded him  of  it;  it  happened  in  Indiana." 

At  the  time  Mr.  Lincoln  entered  upon  his  office 
as  President  one  of  his  children,  Eddie,  was  "  dead," 
and  the  three  remaining  sons  were,  respectively, 
eight,  ten,  and  eighteen  years  of  age.  Robert  Todd, 
the  oldest,  who,  in  1860,  had  been  admitted  to  Har- 
vard University,  went  home  to  accompany  the  family 
to  Washington,  but  soon  afterwards  returned  to  col- 
lege. In  February,  1862,  William  Wallace  died, 
after  a  short  illness,  leaving  only  Thomas  and  Rob- 
ert. Thomas  was  named  in  honor  of  his  father's 
father.  He  was  a  mischievous  boy,  and  not  very 
fond  of  books  and  study.  He  had  his  own  way,  and 
to  a  great  extent,  controlled  his  parents,  as  anybody 
would  suppose  Lincoln's  children  would  do.  Like 
his  father,  in  his  early  days,  Thomas,  or  "  Tad,"  as 
he  was  called,  seemed,  at  times,  to  be  quite  fractious 
in  his  religious  training,  although  in  the  main  he 
was  a  boy  of  excellent  principles.  In  his  simple 
faith  an  endless  hereafter  and  a  beautiful  and  happy 
heaven  were  not  the  least  bit  problematic,  and  when 
his  good  father  died  the  little  fellow  readily  asso- 
ciated him  with  his  brother  William  in  a  world  where 
he  would  certainly  be  happier  than  he  was  in  this. 


670  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

"Tad"  could  never  quite  comprehend  the  virtue 
of  -his  father's  numerous  proclamations  appointing 
days  of  fasting  and  prayer,  and  would  conceal  food 
to  be  eaten  on  these  occasions  in  secret.  Mr. 
Stanton,  for  fun,  commissioned  him  a  lieutenant,  and 
he  soon  got  a  sword  and  military  suit,  and  in  this 
suit  had  himself  photographed.  He  had  a  "  stop- 
page" in  his  speech,  of  which  he  improved  as  he  be- 
came older.  In  1869  he  went  to  Europe  with  his 
mother,  and  there  made  some  progress  in  study,  but 
in  1871  he  returned  home,  and  after  a  short  illness, 
died,  July  15th  of  that  year.  "Tad"  was  not  an 
especially  bright  boy,  but  as  he  grew  older  he  im- 
proved greatly,  and  his  friends  hoped  for  much 
from  him. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  the 
Lincoln  family  took  possession  of  the  White  House, 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  her  sisters  at  once  set  about 
getting  used  to  the  place,  and  preparing  for  the  first 
reception  which  was  held  on  the  9th.  A  host  of 
friends  had  accompanied  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  family 
to  the  Capitol,  and  many  of  these  took  up  their  res- 
idence at  the  White  House.  Among  them  was  Ward 
Hill  Lamon,  a  Springfield  lawyer. 

Although  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  called  a  "  green  West- 
ern woman,"  she  had  no  idea  of  being  second  in 
anything  at  the  White  House,  which  did  not  come 
directly  in  the  line  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  duties  as  Pres- 
ident. The  reception  went  off  to  her  taste,  and  she 
was  quite  successful  in  making  a  favorable  impres- 
sion,   which,    unfortunately,   she    did   not    maintain. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  671 

She  had  been  many  years  by  Mr.  Lincohi's  side, 
but  she  had  kept  pace  with  him  only  in  one  thing, 
ambition  for  distinction.  She  had  received  more 
than  an  ordinarily  fine  education  for  young  women 
at  that  day  in  Kentucky,  but  she  had  not  improved 
her  advantages.  As  in  the  case  of  most  young 
women,  her  education  stopped  when  she  left  school, 
and  while  Mr.  Lincoln  improved  himself  and  went 
upward,  she  remained  where  she  was,  in  a  great  de- 
gree. Political  matters  and  the  current  news  of  the 
day,  things  which  could  not  cultivate  and  elevate 
mind  and  character,  she  knew,  to  some  extent;  but 
a  systematic  course  of  reading,  thinking,  feeling,  and 
acting,  which  would  have  made  her  a  companion  for 
her  husband,  a  guide  for  her  children,  and  a  culti- 
vated, refined,  useful,  and  happy  woman,  she  had  not 
entered  upon,  .and  never  did  do  so  at  any  later  pe- 
riod. She  had  shrewdness,  had  education  enough  to 
speak  grammatically,  and  refinement  enough  to  be 
agreeable,  even  among  refined  people,  when  she  chose 
to  be  so.  She  had  a  person  not  void  of  attractive- 
ness, dressed  with  taste  mainly,  and  in  general  con- 
ducted herself  with  the  dignity  and  accuracy,  per- 
haps, due  to  the  position  she  occupied. 

During  her  residence  at  the  White  House,  "  so- 
cial affairs  "  in  Washington  were  of  the  least  possible 
importance ;  but  that  she  gave  satisfaction  to  those 
whose  frivolous  souls  "  live,  move,  and  have  their 
being"  at'the  National  Capitol,  in  the  gay  "court" 
society,  does  not  at  all  appear.  When  Mrs.  Lincoln 
entered  the  White  House,  she  was  wholly  given  to 


672  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

her  ambition  for  the  glory  of  place.  No  religious,  or 
even  moral,  principles  guided  her  steps.  Her  taste 
for  dress  was  hardly  based  upon  principles  of  refine- 
ment, but  more  on  mere  animal  display.  In  this  she 
was  not,  however,  worse  than  the  majority  of  her 
light-minded  sex,  and,  indeed,  unfortunately  the  great 
mass  of  the  human  race.  Her  extravagance  in  dress 
became  notable,  and  in  time,  wjis  a  source  ^of  slan- 
der, if  it  did  not  also  aid  materially  in  unhinging 
her  mind. 

Mr.  Buchanan's  commissioner  of  buildings  was  in 
charge  of  the  White  House,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  en- 
tered it,  and  was  by  him  requested  to  remain  until 
he  could  find  a  suitable  successor.  This  not  very  nec- 
essary official  had  the  care  of  the  public  property 
about  the  White  House,  furniture,  and  so  forth,  and 
was  a  familiar  and  ceremonious  character  in  the  affairs 
of  the  President's  residence.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  anx- 
ious to  retain  this  Democrat  in  his  place,  but  in  that 
he  met  the  very  decided  opposition  of  his  wife,  who 
had  herself  fixed  upon  a  man  for  the  place.  But  her- 
choice  was  not  agreeable  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  he  re- 
fused  to  make  the  appointment.  At  this  turn  of  the 
affair  Mrs.  Lincoln  withdrew  from  the  field,  and  shut- 
ting herself  up  in  her  room  refused  to  see  the  Presi- 
dent for  several  days.  At  last,  however,  he  appeared 
at  the  door,  and  announced  that  he  was  ready  to 
capitulate.  These  welcome  words  opened  the  way 
speedily  to  his  wife's  arms.  Well  she  llnew  they 
would  come.     She  had  tried  the  experiment  before. 

In  social  follies  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  an  apt  learner, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  673 

and  in  these  things  she  did  not  long  remain  behind 
Washington  expectations.  She  could  speak  the 
French  language,  and  sometimes  attempted  it  with 
foreign  representatives,  much  to  the  regret  of  Mr. 
Sewnrd,  who  feared  her  lack  of  ability.  The  dispo- 
sition of  Ward  Lamon  to  make  his  quarters  at  the 
White  House  was  not  according  to  Mrs.  Lincoln's 
sense  of  propriety,  and  this  slie  was  not  long  in  let- 
ting him  know.  This  fnct  may  or  may  not  have  some 
relation  to  his  very  decided  exaggerations  of  her  con- 
duct, and  the  mere  mechanical  kind  of  attachment  he 
claimed  Mr.  Lincoln  had  for  her.  That  point  has 
been  sutficiently  discussed  in  another  part  of  this 
work.  It  is  only  necessary  to  say  here,  that  those 
who  were  familiar  with  the  daily  routine  in  the  Lin- 
coln family  at  the  White  House  were  unable  to  give 
any  thing  but  most  favorable  testimony  of  the  genu- 
ine relations  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  wife.  Mrs. 
Lincoln's  subsequent  life,  and  many  of  her  letters 
which  have  become  public,  only  go  to  prove  her  en- 
tire devotion  to  his  memory,  and  controvert  all  state- 
ments touching  the  want  of  mutual  affection  between 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  herself. 

In  the  Summer  of  1861,  Mrs.  Lincoln  visited 
some  of  the  "  watering-places,"  and  during  the  fol- 
lowing Winter  made  social  affairs  as  attractive,  at  the 
White  House,  as  the  times  would  admit. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  carried  her  points  as  to  many  things 
in  the  general  conduct  of  receptions,  dinners,  and  so 
on  at  the  President's,  and  in  none  of  them  wa^^  she, 
perhaps,  wiser  than  in  deciding  that   the   President 

43— Q 


674  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

should  be  her  escort,  and  not  that  of  other  women^ 
on  all  public  occasions.  While  her  judgment  was 
often  very  good,  and  her  insight  of  men  and  events 
at  times  accurate  and  valuable,  she  was  extremely 
selfish,  and  full  of  prejudice  in  the  manner  of  more 
ignorant  and  less  cultured  persons. 

Mr.  Chase  she  suspected,  and  wanted  Mr.  Lincoln 
to  inquire  into  his  motives.  Of  Mr.  Seward  she 
said  :  "  I  wish  you  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  man. 
He  can  not  be  trusted."  Of  Andrew  Johnson  she 
said :  "  He  is  a  demagogue,  and  if  you  place  him  in 
power,  Mr.  Lincoln,  mark  my  words,  you  will  rue  it 
some  day."  This  she  said  when  Mr.  Johnson  was 
about  to  be  appointed  Military  Governor  of  Tennes- 
see. She  never  could  bear  Johnson,  and  seemed 
always  foolish  enough  to  believe  that  he  was  some 
way  concerned  in  the  assassination  plot. 

She  said  McClellan  was  a  humbug,  because  he 
talked  so  much  and  did  €0  little.  She  would  have  put 
an  energetic  man  in  his  place.  And  when  Mr.  Lin- 
coln would  argue  that  McClellan  was  a  soldier  and  a 
patriot,  she  would  repeat :  "  I  tell  you  he  is  a  hum- 
bug, and  you  will  have  to  find  some  man  to  take  his 
place  ;  that  is,  if  you  wish  to  conquer  the  South." 

General  Grant  she  always  disliked.  She  said  that 
he  was  an  obstinate  butcher,  and  thought  she  would 
not  like  to  live  in  the  country  if  he  were  President. 

After  the  death  of  her  son,  William  Wallace,  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  to  a  great  extent,  disappeared  from  public 
notice.  She  was  greatly  attached  to  him,  and  her 
erroneous    mind    shrank    from    death   with    horror. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  675 

Neither  her  conduct,  nor  that  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  was 
wise  or  good  touching  the  loss  of  this  interesting 
boy.  That  philosophy  which  holds  the  key  to  a 
beautiful  hereafter  for  all  children  should  h;i.ve  made 
wiser  and  truer  parents.  There  is  not  wanting  evi- 
dence, however,  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  at  least,  did  not 
lose  the  benefits  of  this  "  dispensation." 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  his  widow  re- 
mained for  several  weeks  at  the  President's  mansion, 
Mr.  Johnson  giving  her  her  own  time  in  which  to 
vacate  the  premises.  Perhaps  she  never  recovered 
from  the  shock  of  her  husband's  murder,  although 
the  last  years  of  her  life  were  passed  in  comparative 
peace  and  quietness. 

Congress  twice  made  appropriations  for  her  com- 
fort ;  still  for  years  she  seemed  to  be  greatly  troubled 
about  her  poverty,  and  in  1867  created  what  was,  per- 
haps, a  scandal,  or  at  any  rate  was  so  termed,  in  her 
attempts  to  sell  the  clothes  she  had  accumulated  in 
such  extravagance  at  the  White  House. 

Mrs.  Lincoln  died  in  Springfield,  July  16,  1882. 
The  following  obituary  notice  is  taken  from  "  The 
Cincinnati  Commercial :" — 

"  The  public  has  known  for  some  time  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  was 
in  ill-health,  but  nothiug  had  appeared  to  indicate  that  her  death 
at  an  early  date  was  probable.  About  the  24th  of  March,  last, 
she  returned  from  New  York,  where  she  had  been  underjjoing 
treatment,  and  her  health  was  then  noticeably  improved.  Noth- 
ing, however,  could  fully  arouse  her  from  the  gloomy  state  of 
mind,  which  has  almost  perpetually  borne  upon  her  since  that 
terrible  night  when  her  husband,  the  foremost  man  of  the  world, 
was  shot  by  her  side  in  Ford's  Theater,  Washington.     Though 


676  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

her  friends  had  hopes  of  many  happy  days  for  her,  she  was  not 
able  to  emancipate  herself  from  the  shadow  that  had  clouded 
her  life.  After  her  return,  as  stated,  she  took  a  room  at  the 
house  of  her  brother-in-law,  the  Hon.  E.  W,  Edwards,  and  had 
since  been  little  seen  except  by  near  friends  of  the  family.  In- 
stead of  gaining  in  health  she  rather  declined,  and  latterly  spent 
much  of  her  time  in  bed.  Within  the  past  few  days  she  had 
been  suffering  from  an  attack  of  boils,  which  caused  her  great 
pain,  and  doubtless  increased  her  nervousness. 

"On  Friday  last,  she  was  up,  and  walked  across  the  room. 
Again,  on  Saturday,  she  walked  across  the  room  with  a  little 
assistance ;  but  she  grew  worse  later  in  the  day,  and  about  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening  experieneed  a  paralysis  which  seemed  to 
involve  her  whole  system,  so  that  she  was  unable  to  articulate, 
to  take  food,  or  to  move  any  portion  of  her  body.  She  soon 
after  passed  into  a  comatose  state,  and  so  continued  breathing 
stertorously  up  till  8.15  P.  M.  to-night,  when  she  died  in  the 
same  house,  where  nearly  forty  years  ago  she  and  Abraham 
Lincoln  were  married." 

"Mary  Lincoln  was  the  daughter  of  the  Hon.  R.  S.  Todd, 
of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and  was  born  in  December,  1818. 
She  visited  Springfield  at  different  times,  and  in  1839  came 
here  to  remain.  On  November  2,  1842,  she  was  married  to 
Abraham  Lincoln,  as  before  stated,  at  the  house  of  Hon. 
N.  W.  Edwards.  The  newly  married  pair  made  their  home 
for  some  time  at  Mr.  Edwards's,  and  afterwards  boarded  at 
what  was  then  the  Old  Globe  Hotel,  where  Robert  Lincoln, 
their  first  child,  was  born  in  1843.  The  three  other  children 
of  that  marriage,  Eddie,  Willie,  and  Thomas  (so  well  known  as 
Tad),  are  all  dead. 

"Mrs.  Lincoln  had  three  sisters,  Elizabeth  P.,  wife  of  the 
Hon.  N.  W.  Edwards;  Frances  J.,  relict  of  Dr.  William  8. 
Wallace;  and  Annie,  wife- of  C.  M.  Smith,  a  leading  merchant 
of  this  city,  all  of  whom  are  now  living.  Mrs.  Wallace  is  the 
only  sister  older  than  Mrs.  Lincoln.  There  were  also  several 
half-sisters  in  the  family. 

"  Mrs.  Lincoln  remained  in  Washington  for  some  time  after 
the  tragic  death  of  her  husband,  and  afterward  came  to  Chicago, 
where  she  remained  several  years.     She  bought  property  there 


ABRAHAM  J.INCOLN.  H77 

and  was  comfortably  situated,  but  it  was  evident  to  her  friends 
that  her  mind  was  unbalanced  by  the  immeasurable  shock  it 
had  received,  and  in  hopes  of  obtaining  relief  for  her,  she  was 
taken  to  a  private  retreat  at  Batavia.  On  leaving  there  she 
was  thought  to  be  improved  both  in  physical  and  mental  con- 
dition. Soon  thereafter  slie  went  to  Europe,  remaining  about 
three  years.  Returning  to  this  city,  she  made  her  home  with 
her  sister.  With  the  exception  of  her  trip  to  New  York  before 
mentioned,  and  a  few  other  brief  visits  to  friends,  she  has  kept 
herself  secluded  during  later  years,  and  nothing  apparently 
could  arouse  in  her  any  ambition  to  mingle  with  people  and 
shake  off,  if  possible,  the  thrall  of  grief.  She  was  a  woman  of 
great  physical  strength,  and  this  doubtless  aided  to  bring  her 
through  the  long  years  intervening  since  her  husband's  death. 
In  her  death  the  family  of  Abraliam  Lincoln  is  reduced  to 
one  onl)'." 

On  the  19th  the  "funeral"  took  place,  the  follow- 
ing account  of  which  is  taken  from  '•  The  Cincinnati 
Enquirer :" — 

"The  altar  presented  a  beautiful  appearance,  covered  as  it 
was  with  magnificent  floral  decorations.  The  floral  ofl'erings 
of  the  citizens  of  Springfield  consisted  of  four  pieces.  The 
largest  piece  was  a  large  cross  and  anchor  surmounted  by  a 
crown.  The  base  was  composed  of  double  hollyhocks,  tube- 
roses, and  pansies,  arranged  in  the  most  beautiful  and  attract- 
ive manner.  The  next  beautiful  piece  was  the  '  Gates  Ajar,' 
composed  of  carnation  pinks  and  tuberoses.  A  very  beautiful 
pillow  of  carnation  pinks  and  tuberoses,  with  the  words,  '  From 
the  Citizens  of  Springfield,'  worked  in  forget-me-nots;  and  last, 
but  not  least,  was  an  open  Bible,  composed  of  carnation  pinks 
and  tuberoses,  with  the  name  'Mary  Lincoln'  inscribed  on  the 
open  pages  in  forget-me-nots.  Besides  these  there  were  other 
floral  oflferings  which  were  very  beautiful. 

"As  the  casket  was  carried  from  the  church,  the  choir  sang, 
'Rest,  Spirit,  Rest.'  The  cortege  then  re-formed  and  proceeded 
to  the  Lincoln  monument  at  Oak  Ridge,  where  a  still  larger 
crowd  had   congregated.     The  hearse  was  <lriven  to  the  south 


678  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

side  of  the  raonumeut,  while  the  friends  proceeded  to  the 
northern  side.  The  remains  were  here  taken  in  charge  by  the 
pall-bearers,  and  escorted  by  the  Lincoln  Guard  of  Honor. 
They  proceeded  to  the  door  of  the  crypt,  while  the  friends  ap- 
proached from  the  north.  The  casket  was  laid  by  the  side 
of  the  sarcophagus  in  which  lie  the  remains  of  her  illustrious 
husband. 

"  Over  the  doorway  leading  to  the  crypt  the  name  '  Lincoln' 
appeared  in  flowers,  and  the  walls  on  the  interior  were  com- 
pletely lined  with  living  green,  interspersed  with  floral  emblems, 
while  resting  against  the  sarcophagus  was  a  lyre,  and  on  it  a 
large  cross  composed  of  beautiful  blossoms. 

"All  the  State  officers,  city  oflicers,  and  Federal  Court 
officers  attended  in  a  body.  Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  Secretary 
of  War,  and  the  only  surviving  member  of  the  family,  was  the 
chief  mourner. 

"The  national  colors  all  day  long  were  suspended  at  half- 
mast  over  the  State-house,  the  Fedei-al  Court  building,  and  the 
court-house. 

"On  Mrs.  Lincoln's  fore-finger  was  her  wedding-ring,  bear- 
ing the  inscription,  'A.  L.  to  Mary.  Love  is  Eternal.'  The 
inscription  on  the  silver  plate  of  the  casket  is  '  Mary,  wife  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.'" 

Robert  Todd  Lincoln,  the  only  remaining  child 
of  President  Lincoln,  was  chosen  as  a  member  of  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Garfield,  and  was  continued  in 
the  same  position  by  his  successor.  The  following, 
it  is  said,  is  a  part  of  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  last  con- 
versations with  this  fine  son: — 

"  Well,  my  son,  you  have  returned  safely  from  the  front. 
The  war  i.s  now  closed,  and  we  soon  will  live  in  peace  with 
the  brave  men  that  have  been  fighting  against  us.  I  trust 
that  the  era  of  good  feeling  has  returned  with  the  end  of 
the  war,  and  that  henceforth  we  shall  live  in  peace.  Now, 
listen  to  me,  Robert:  you  must  lay  aside  your  uniform, 
and  return  to  college.     I  wish  you  to  read  law  for  three 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  679 

years,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time,  I  hope  that  we  will  be 
able  to  tell  whether  you  will  make  a  lawyer  or  not." 

These  words  are  all  characteristic  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  of  any  country  or 
age  ;  a  man  who,  in  a  marked  degree,  stood  alone 
among  the  Presidents,  and  indeed,  all  his  country- 
men. While  his  personal  ambition,  during  a  great 
part  of  his  life,  was  that  of  the  mere  politician,  his 
thoughts,  acts,  and  conduct  were  mainly  those  of  a 
statesman,  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  teim.  While 
he  thought  he  was  the  humblest  man  who  had  ever 
been  President,  he  sincerely  believed  that  he  was 
an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  for  the  work 
which  was  accomplished  under  him.  And  who  will 
say  not  so  ? 

May  Heaven  forever  bless  and  his  countrymen 
forever  cherish  the  good  deeds  and  the  good  name 
of  Abraham  Lincoln ! 


680  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

SOME  SAYINGS  OF  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

HOLDING  it  a  sound  maxim,  that  it  is  better  only 
sometimes  to  be  right  than  at  all  times  wrong,  so 
soon  as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be  erroneous,  I  shall  be 
ready  to  renounce  them.  (Address  to  the  people  of"  San- 
gamon County  in  1832  or  1833.) 

Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  1  have 
no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my 
fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem. 
(Address  to  the  people  of  Sangamon  (bounty,  1832 
or  1833.) 

The  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice 
and  bad  policy.  (Protest  against  resolutions  in  Illinois 
Legislature  favoring  slavery,  March  3,  1837.) 

My  way  of  living  leads  me  to  be  about  the  courts  of 
justice;  and  there  I  have  sometimes  seen  a  good  lawyer, 
struggling  for  his  client's  neck,  in  a  desperate  case,  em- 
ploy every  artifice  to  work  around,  befog,  and  cover  up 
with  many  words,  some  position  pressed  upon  him  by  the 
prosecution,  which  he  dared  not  admit,  and  could  not 
deny.     (Speech  on  the  Mexican  War,  January  12,  1848.) 

Any  people,  anywhere,  being  inclined,  and  having  the 
power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and  shake  off  the  existing 
government,  and  form  a  new  one  that  suits  them  better. 
This   is  a    most  valuable,   a,   most   sacred   right ;    a   right, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  081 

which  we   hope,    and    believe,    is   to    liberate   the  world. 
(Same  speech.) 

It  is  a  quality  of  revolutions  not  to  go  by  old  lines  or 
old  laws ;  but  to  break  up  both,  and  make  new  ones. 
(Same  speech.) 

As  a  nation  should  not,  and  the  Almighty  will  not, 
be  evaded,  so  let  him  attempt  no  evasion,  no  equivoca- 
tion.    (Same  speech.) 

The  way  for  a  young  man  to  rise  is  to  improve  him- 
self every  way  he  can,  never  suspecting  that  anybody 
wishes  to  hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  assure  you  tiiat 
suspicion  and  jealousy  never  did  help  any  man  in  any 
situation.     (Letter  to  Herndon,  July  10,  1848.) 

An  honest  laborer  digs  coal  at  about  seventy  cents  a 
day,  while  the  President  digs  abstractions  at  about  seventy 
dollars  a  day.     (Internal    improvement  speech    June  20, 

1848.) 

The  true  rule  in  determining  to  embrace  or  reject  any- 
thing, is  not  whether  it  have  any  evil  in  it,  but  whether 
it  have  more  of  evil  than  of  good.  There  are  few  things 
wholly  evil  or  wholly  good.  (Speech  on  internal  im- 
provements, June  20,  1848.) 

•  I  insist  that  if  there  is  anything  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  whole  people  never  to  intrust  to  any  hands  but 
their  own,  that  thing  is  the  preservation  and  perpetuity 
of  their  own  liberties  and  institutions.  And  if  they  shall 
think,  as  I  do,  that  the  extension  of  slavery  endangers 
them  more  than  any  or  all  other  causes,  how  recreant  to 
themselves  if  they  submit  the  question,  and  with  it,  the 
fate  of  their  country,  to  a  handful  of  men  bent  on  tem- 
porary self-interest.  (Speech  in  answer  to  Mr.  Douglas 
at  Peoria,  October,  1854.) 

This  declared  indifference,  but  as  I  must  think  real 
zeal  for  the  spread,  of  slavery,  I  can  not  but  hate.     I  hate 


682  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slavery  itself;  I 
hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  republican  example  of  its 
just  influence  in  the  world;  enables  the  enemies  of  free 
institutions  with  plausibility  to  taunt  us  as  hypocrites; 
causes  the  real  friends  of  freedom  to  doubt  our  sincer- 
ity;  and  .especially  because  it  forces  so  many  really  good 
men  among  ourselves  into  an  open  war  with  the  very 
fundamental  principles  of  civil  liberty,  criticising  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  insisting  that  there  is 
no  right  principle  of  action  but  self-interest.    (Same  speech.) 

When  the  white  man  governs  himself,  that  is  self-gov- 
ernment ;  but  when  he  governs  himself,  and  also  governs 
another  man,  that  is  more  than  self-government — that  is 
despotism.     (Same.) 

Slave  States  are  places  for  poor  white  people  to  remove 
fi'om,  not  to  remove  to ;  new  free  States  are  the  places  for 
poor  people  to  go  to  and  better  their  condition.  For  this 
use,  the  Nation  needs  these  .Territories. 

Slavery  is  founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature  ; 
opposition  to  it,  in  his  love  of  justice. 

In  our  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the  negro,  let 
us  beware  lest  we  "cancel  and  tear  to  pieces"  even  the 
white  man's  charter  of  freedom.     (Same.) 

Some  men,  mostly  Whigs,  who  condemn  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  nevertheless  hesitate  to  go  for 
its  restoration,  lest  they  be  thrown  in  company  with  the 
Abolitionist.  Will  they  allow  me,  as  an  old  Whig,  to  tell 
them,  good-humoredly,  that  I  think  this  is  very  silly? 
Stand  with  anybody  that  stands  right.  Stand  with  him 
while  he  is  right,  and  part  with  him  when  he  goes  wrong. 
(Same.) 

Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as  man's  march  to  the 
grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the  old  for  the  new  faith. 
Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began  by  declaring  that  all  men 
are  created  equal  ;  but  now  from  that  beginning  we  have 


ABRAHAM  LINCOI-N  683 

run  down  to  the  other  declaration  that  for  some  men  to 
enslave  others  is  a  "  sacred  right  of  self-government." 
These  principles  can  not  stand  together.  They  are  as  op- 
posite as  God  and  Mammon  ;  and  whoever  holds  to  one 
must  despise  the  other.     (Same.) 

It  is  not  fair  for  you  to  assume  that  I  have  tfo  interest 
in  a  thing  which  has,  and  continually  exercises,  the  power 
of  making  me  miserable.     (Letter,  August  24,  1855.) 

Friends,  I  agree  with  you  in  providence,  but  I  believe 
in  the  providence  of  the  most  men,  the  largest  purse,  and 
the  longest  cannon.  (Brief  address  to  the  Springfield 
Abolitionists  in  1856.) 

We  will  speak  for  freedom  and  against  slavery,  as  long 
as  the  Constitution  of  our  country  guarantees  free  speech, 
until  everywhere  on  this  wide  land,  the  sun  shall  shine 
and  the  rain  shall  fall  and  the  wMud  blow  upon  no  man 
who  goes  forth  to  unrequited  toil.  (Speech  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1856.) 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  in- 
tended to  include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  intend  to 
declare  all  men  equal  in  dll  respects.  They  did  not  mean 
to  say  all  Avere  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral  de- 
velopments, or  social  capacity.  They  defined  with  toler- 
able distinctness  in  what  respects  they  did  consider  all 
men  created  equal,  equal  with  "certain  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness." This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant.  They  did 
not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth,  that  all  were  then 
actually  enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet  that  they  were 
about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they 
had  no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply 
to  declare  the  right,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it  might 
follow  as  fast  as  circumstances  should  permit.  (Speech  at 
Springfield,  III.,  June  26,  1857.) 


684  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither  we 
are  tending,  we  could  then  better  judge  what  to  do,  and 
how  to  do  it.  (House-divided-against-itself-speech,  July 
17,  1858.) 

"A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand."  I 
believe  this  Government  can  not  endure  permanently, 
half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to 
be  dissolved ;  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one 
thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the 
public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course  of 
ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward, 
till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as 
well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South.  ("  House-divided- 
against-itself  speech.") 

So  I  say,  in  relation  to  the  principle  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  let  it  be  as  nearly  reached  as  we  can.  If 
we  can  not  give  freedom  to  every  creature,  let  us  do 
nothing  that  will  impose  slavery  upon  any  other  creature. 
(Speech  at  Chicago,  July  10,  1858.) 

I  leave  you,  hoping  that  the  lamp  of  liberty  will  burn 
in  your  bosoms  until  there  shall  no  longer  be  a  doubt  that 
all  men  are  created  free  and  equal.     (Same  speech.) 

In  pointing  out  that  more  has  been  given  you,  you 
can  not  be  justified  in  taking  away  the  little  which  has 
been  given  him.  All  I  ask  for  the  negro  is,  that  if  you 
do  not  like  him,  let  him  alone.  If  God  gave  him  but 
little,  that  little  let  him  enjoy.  (Speech  at  Springfield, 
July  17,  1858.) 

The  Democracy  of  to-day  hold  the  liberty  of  one  man 
to  be  absolutely  nothing,  when  in  conflict  with  another 
man's  right  of  property.  Republicans,  on  the  contrary, 
are  both  for  the  man  and  the  dollar,  but  in  case  of  con- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  685 

fllict,  the  man  before  the  dollar.     (Letter  to  Boston  Re- 
j)ublicans,  April  6,  1859.) 

This  is  a  world  of  compensations,  and  he  who  would 
be  no  slave  must  consent  to  have  no  slave.  Those  who 
deny  freedom  to  others  deserve  it  not  for  themselves;  and, 
under  a   just  God,  can  not  long    retain  it.     (Same  letter.) 

All  honor  to  Jefferson — to  the  man  who,  in  the  con- 
crete pressure  of  a  struggle  for  national  independence  by 
a  single  people,  had  the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity 
to  introduce  into  a  merely  revolutionary  document  an 
abstract  truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so 
to  embalm  it  there,  that  to-day  and  in  all  coming  days  it 
shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  harbingers 
of  reappearing  tyranny  and  oppression.     (Same  letter.) 

I  have  found  that  it  is  not  entirely  safe,  when  one  is 
misrepresented  under  his  very  nose,  to  allow  this  misrep- 
resentation to  go  uncontradicted.  (Speech  at  Columbus, 
O.,  September,  1859.) 

There  are  two  ways  of  establishing  a  proposition.  One 
is,  by  trying  to  demonstrate  it  upon  reason  ;  and  the  other 
is,  to  show  that  great  men  in  former  times  have  thought 
so  and  so,  and  thus  to  pass  it  by  the  weight  of  pure 
authority.     (Same  speech.) 

Labor  is  the  great  source  from  which  nearly  all,  if  not 
all,  human  comforts  and  necessities  are  drawn.  (Speech 
at  Cincinnati,  September,  1859). 

What  the  robber  demanded  of  me — my  money — was 
my  own;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep  it;  but  it  was 
no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is  my  own  ;  and  the  threat 
of  death  to  me  to  extort  my  money,  and  the  threat  of 
destruction  to  the  Union  to  extort  my  vote,  can  scarcely 
be  distinguished  in  principle.  (Speech  at  Cooper  Insti- 
tute, February  27,  1860.) 


686  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by 
our  duty,  fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted 
by  none  of  those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith  we 
are  so  industriously  plied  and  belabored — contrivances 
such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between  the  right 
and  the  wrong,  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man  who  should 
be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man  ;  such  as  a  policy 
of  "  do  n't  care"  on  a  question  about  which  all  true  men 
do  care;  such  as  Union  appeals  beseeching  true  Union  men 
to  yield  to  disunionists,  reversing  the  divine  rule,  and  call- 
ing, not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous  to  repentance  ;  such 
as  invocations  to  Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay 
what  Washington  said,  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

Neither  let  us  be  slandered 'from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  raenace;s 
of  destruction  to  the  Government,  nor  of  dungeons  to  our- 
selves. Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might,  and  in 
that  faith,  let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty,  as  we 
understand  it.     (Speech  at  Cooper  Institute.) 

I  am  sure,  however,  that  I  have  not  the  ability  to  do 
any  thing  unaided  of  God.  (Short  speech  at  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  February,  1861.) 

The  intention  of  the  lawgiver  is  the  law.  (First  In- 
augural Address.) 

I  hold  that  in  the  contemplation  of  universal  lavv  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual. 
Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  fundamental 
law  of  all  national  governments.  (First  Inaugural 
Address.) 

I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken  ;  and,  to  the  extent 
of  my  ability,  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitution  itself 
expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union 
shall  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States.  Doing  this, 
which  I    deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my   part,    I 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  687 

.shall  perfectly  perform  it,  so  far  as  is  practicable,  unless 
my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold 
the  requisition,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner  direct  the 
contrary.     (First  Inaugural  Address.) 

The  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy. 
(First  Inaugural  Address.) 

A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  Constitutional  check 
and  limitation,  and  always  changing  easily  with  deliberate 
changes  of  popular  opinions  and  sentiments,  is  the  only 
true  sovereign  of  a  fr^  people.    (First  Inaugural  Address.) 

Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends  can  make 
laws  ? 

Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens 
than  laws  can  among  friends  ?     (First  Inaugural  Address.) 

If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations,  with  his  eternal 
truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on 
your  side  of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will 
surely  prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal,  the 
American  people.     (First  Inaugural  Address.) 

Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  re- 
liance on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored 
land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our 
present  difficulties.     (First  Inaugural  Address.) 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and 
not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war.  The 
Government  will  not  assail  you. 

You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the 
aggressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to 
destroy  the  Government;  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  "preserve,  protect,  and  defend"  it. 

The  mystic  cords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battle-field  and  j)atriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union,  when   again   touched,  as  surely  they 


68S  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

will  be,  by  the   better  angels  of  our   nature.     (Fii-st    In- 
augural Address.) 

I  hope  to  deal  in  all  things  fairly  with  Judge  Douglas, 
and  with  the  people  of  the  State,  in  this  contest.  And  if 
I  should  never  be  elected  to  any  office,  I  trust  I  may  go 
down  with  no  stain  of  falsehood  upon  my  reputation,  not- 
withstanding the  hard  opinions  Judge  Dongias  chooses  to 
entertain  of  me.  (Rejoinder  to  Douglas  at  Freeport, 
August  27,  1858.) 

I  would  despise  myself  if  I  supposed  myself  ready  to 
deal  less  liberally  with  an  adversary  than  I  was  willing  to 
be  treated  myself.  (Rejoinder  to  Douglas's  speech  at 
Charleston,  September  18,  1858.) 

It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had 
a  provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 
(First  Inaugural  Address.) 

It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  Government  to  render  pron)()t 
just  against  itself,  in  favor  of  citizens,  as  it  is  to  admin- 
ister the  same  between  private  individuals.  (First  Annual 
Message.) 

It  has  been  said  that  one  bad  general  is  better  than 
two  good  ones  ;  and  the  saying  is  true,  if  taken  to  mean  no 
more  than  that  an  army  is  better  directed  by  a  single 
mind,  though  inferior,  than  by  two  superior  ones  at  vari- 
ance and  cross-purposes  with  each  other. 

In  a  storm  at  sea,  no  one  on  board  can  wish  the  ship 
to  sink;  and  yet,  not  unfrequently,  all  go  down  together, 
because  too  many  will  direct,  and  no  single  mind  can  be 
allowed  to  control.     (First  Annual  Message.) 

Nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free  man  being  fixed 
for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  laborer. 

Labor  is  prior  to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital 
is  only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if 
labor   had    not    first   existed.      Labor   is    the    superior    of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  689 

capital,    and    deserves    much     the    higher    consideration. 
(First  Annual  Message.) 

The  prudent,  penniless  beginner  in  the  world  labors 
for  wages  awhile,  saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools 
or  land  for  himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account 
another  while,  and  at  length  hires  another  beginner  to  help 
him.  'This  is  the  just,  and  generous,  and  prosperous  sys- 
tem, which  opens  the  way  to  all,  gives  hope  to  all,  and 
consequent  energy  and  progress  and  improvement  of  con- 
dition to  all.     (First  Annual  Message.) 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors, 
and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear 
to  be  true  views.  (Letter  to  Mr.  Greeley,  August 
22,  1862.) 

Labor  is  like  any  other  commodity  in  the  market :  in- 
crease the  demand  for  it,  and  you  increase  the  price  of  it. 
(Annual  Message,  December  1,  1862.) 

Peace  does  not  appear  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it 
will  come  soon  and  come  to  stay ;  and  so  come  as  to  be 
worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will  then  have 
been  proved  that  among  freemen  there  can  be  no  success- 
ful appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet,  and  that  they  who 
take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their  case  and  pay  the 
cost.  And  there  will  be  some  black  men  who  can  remem- 
ber that,  with  silent  tongue,  and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady 
eye,  and  well-poised  bayonet,  they  have  helped  mankind 
on  to  this  great  consummation,  while  I  fear  there  will  be 
some  white  ones  unable  to  forget  that  with  malignant  heart 
and  deceitful  speech  they  have  striven  to  hinder  it. 
(Letter,  August  26,  1863.) 

The  radicals  and  conservatives  each  agree  with  me 
in  some  things  and  disagree  in  others.  I  could  wish  both 
to  agree  with  me  in  all  things ;  for  then  they  would  agree 
with  each  other,  and  would  be  too  strong  for  any  foe  from 

44 — Q 


690  LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF 

any  quarter.  They,  however,  choose  to  do  otherwise,  and 
I  do  not  question  their  right.  I,  too,  shall  do  what  seems 
to  be  my  duty.  I  hold  whoever  commands  in  Missouri 
or  elsewhere  responsible  to  me,  and  not  to  either  radicals 
or  conservatives.  It  is  ray  duty  to  hear  all  ;  but,  at  last, 
I  must,  within  my  sphere,  judge  what  to  do  and  what  to 
forbear.     (Letter,  October  5,  1863,  to  Missouri  facticyiists.) 

The  world  has  never  had  a  good  definition  of  the 
word  liberty,  and  the  American  people,  just  now,  are  much 
in  want  of  one.  We  all  declare  for  liberty ;  but  in  using 
the  same  word  we  do  not  all  mean  the  same  thing.  With 
some  the  word  liberty  may  mean  for  each  man  to  do  as 
he  pleases  with  himself,  and  the  product  of  his  labor; 
while  with  others  the  same  word  may  mean  for  some  men 
to  do  as  they  please  with  other  men,  and  the  product  of 
other  men's  labor.  Here  are  two,  not  only  different,  but 
incompatible  things,  called  by  the  same  name,  liberty. 
And  it  follows  that  each  of  these  things  is,  by  the  re- 
spective parties,  called  by  two  different  and  incompatible 
names — liberty  and  tyranny. 

The  shepherd  drives  the  wolf  from  the  sheep's  throat, 
for  which  the  sheep  thanks  the  shepherd  as  a  liberator, 
while  the  wolf  denounces  him  for  the  same  act,  as  the  de- 
stroyer of  liberty,  especially  as  the  sheep  was  a  black  one. 
Plainly,  the  sheep  and  the  wolf  are  not  agreed  upon  a 
definition  of  the  word  liberty;  and  precisely  the  same 
difference  prevails  to-day  among  us  human  creatures,  even 
in  the  North,  and  all  professing  to  love  liberty.  (Address 
in  Baltimore  April  18,  1864.) 

Gold  is  good  in  its  place,  but  living,  brave,  patriotic 
men  are  better  than  gold.  (Address  at  the  White  House 
November  10,  1864.) 

Our  Government  was  not  established  that  one  man 
might  do  with  himself  as  he  pleases,  and  with  another 
man   too.     ...     I  say  that,  whereas  God  Almighty  has 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  '691 

given  every  man  one  mouth  to  be  fed,  and  one  pair  of 
hands  adapted  to  furnish  food  for  that  mouth,  if  anything 
can  be  proved  to  be  the  will  of  Heaven,  it  is  proved  by 
this  fact,  that  that  mouth  is  to  be  fed  by  those  hands, 
without  being  interfered  with  by  any  other  man,  who  has 
also  his  mouth  to  feed,  and  his  hands  to  labor  with. 
(September,  1859.) 

At  elections,  see  that  those,  and  only  those,  are  al- 
lowed to  vote  who  are  entitled  to  do  so  by  the  laws. 
(October,  1863.) 

They  have  concluded  that  it  is  not  best  to  swap 
horses  while  crossing  the  river.     (June,  1864.) 

Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  Nation,  and  yet  preserve 
the  Constitution  ?  By  general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be 
protected ;  yet  often  a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save 
life ;  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given  to  save  a  limb. 
(April,  1864.) 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let 
us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in.  (Second  In- 
augural Address.) 


I  N  DKX 


Administbation — takes  a  step  to 
satisfy  the  people,'  13,  14 — its 
"  unconstitutional "  acts,  47,  48, 
49,  50  — its  difficulties  at  the 
outset,  60,  61— policy  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's,  61,  62,  66,  67,  69,  71, 
72,  97,  146,  148,  151,  154,  171, 
174,  178,  180,  188,  196,  203,  216, 
281,  311— its  course  with  Mc- 
Clellan,  86,  87,  313,  314,  315, 
342, 343,  366,  396, 397— its  course 
with  the  Navy,  121,  122,  123— 
its  course  with  habeas  corpus, 
148,  149,  150,  151,  152,  153,  154, 
155,  157,  218,  221,  281  — its 
grandest  achievement,  254. 

Aiders  and  Abettors  —  in  Con- 
gress, 54,  56,  57,  148,  279,  531— 
want  the  acknowledgment  of 
the  "Confederacy,"  148— their 
habeas  corpus  troubles,  148,  149, 
150 — carry  the  elections,  206, 
207— their  evil  course,  207,  208, 
209,  210,  211,  215,  218,  227,  483, 
493,  495,  498,  507,  531  — their 
newspapers  suppressed,  215, 
216,  217 — the  President  argues 
with  them,  218,  221,  227— their 
hopes  crushed,  421. 


Banks,  N.  P.  —  defeated  at  Win- 
chester, 328— whips  and  cap- 
tures the  rebels  at  Port  Hud- 
son, 429. 

Battles  and  engagements— battle 
at   Big  Bethel,   10  — at   Black- 


burn's Ford,  15 — first  Bull  Run, 
15,  16,  17,  18,  19— of  Wilson's 
Creek,  92,  93  — of  Lexington, 
Missouri,  98— of  Belmont,  105— 
of  Fort  Henry,  109— of  Fort 
Donelson,  110,  111,  112,  113, 
114, 115— of  Mill  Springs,  Camp 
Wildcat,  116  — of  Ball's  Bluff, 
117 — New  Madrid,  Island  No. 
10,  285,  286— Forts  Jackson  and 
Philip,  287  —  New  Orleans, 
288— Shiloh,  292  to  301— Cor- 
inth, 303  — Perry  ville,  305  — 
Stone  River,  306 — of  the  Iron- 
clads, 309,  310  —  Yorktown. 
321  —  Winchester,  328  —  Fair 
Oaks,  333— Front  Royal,  Port 
Republic,  343  — Seven  Days', 
348, 349,  350, 351— Cedar  Mount- 
ain, .377  —  Gainesville,  Manas- 
sas, Chantilly,  378 — Harper's 
Ferry,  387  —  Antietam,  388  — 
Fredericksburg,  403,  404  — 
Chancellorsville,  408,  409,  410— 
Gettysburg,  416,  417,  418,  419, 
420,  421— Vicksburg,  428— Port 
Hudson,  429  —  Chickamauga, 
431,  432  —  Chattanooga,  434, 
435— Fort  Sumter,  438-  Alaba- 
ma and  Kear.sarge,  453 — Resaca, 
Kenesaw  Mountain,  Atlanta, 
552,  553,554  — The  Wilderness, 
Spottsylvania  Court  House, 
Cold  Harbor,  557  —  Franklin, 
Nashville,  561— Five  Forks,  568. 
Beauregard,  G.  T.  —  in  command 
at  Manassas,  1.3 — his  course  in 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  26,  84— 

693 


694 


INDEX. 


his  Shiloh  dispatch,  295,  300— 
censures  Halleck,  302  —  vir- 
tually disappears  from  the  con- 
flict, 302,  560. 

Blair,  F.  P.  Sen. —  his  peace  pro- 
ject, 533,  534 — makes  a  second 
trip  to  Richmond,  535,  536. 

Bragg,  General  Braxton — enters 
Kentucky,  sets  up  a  govern- 
ment, 304 — retreats,  fights  at 
Perryville,  305 — at  Stone  River, 
306  —  at  Chickamauga,  431, 
432 — his  opposition  to  General 
Johnston,  550. 

Breckinridge,  John  C.^ — his  course 
in  the  called  session  of  Con- 
gress, 52,  55,  57  —  attempts  to 
negotiate  with  Sherman,  569. 

Buckner,  General  S-  B.— collects 
an  army  at  Bowling  Green, 
106  —  at  Fort  Donelson,  sur- 
renders, 111,  1^4,  115. 

Buell,  Don  Carlos — at  the  head 
of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio, 
103  —  coquets  with  Halleck, 
sets  out  for  Pittsburg  Landing, 
291,  292,  294,  300  — again  at 
Chattanooga,  follows  Bragg  to 
Kentucky,  303,  304— fights  the 
battle  of  Perryville,  305 — super- 
seded, 305. 

Burnside,  General  A.  E. — sails 
for  Roanoke  Island,  125,  126 — 
in  command  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  his  course  and 
failure,  401  to  405  —  in  East 
Tennessee,  433. 

Butler,  General  B.  F. — finishes 
his  work  in  Baltimore  and  goes 
to  Fortress  Monroe,  9,  10 — suc- 
ceeded by  General  Wool,  10 — 
his  connection  with  and  views 
on  the  "  contraband"  question, 
gives  a  policy  to  the  Adminis- 
tration,  67,   68,   (59,    71,   72— at 


Pamlico  Sound,  124,  125— sails 
with  a  small  army  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  286,  287— 
takes  possession  of  New  Or- 
leans, 288— at  Bermuda  Hun- 
dred, 558. 

C 

Cabinet — said  to  be  composed  of 
men  too  old,  119 — changes  in, 
505— final  composition  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's,  its  last  meeting  with 
him,  577,  578"— Mr.  Lincoln's 
treatment  of,  586,  587,  588,  589. 

Carpenter,  F.  B. — tells  of  some 
undignified  language  in  the 
President's  message,  46— gives 
an  account  of  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation,  243,  248— 
gives  some  account  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  last  Cabinet  meeting, 
577 — relates  a  story,  589— tells 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  religion,  627. 

Chase,  Salmon  P. — his  "  green- 
back "  plan  accepted  by  Con- 
gress, 147 — his  great  eflforts  and 
the  success  of  his  financial 
plans,  200,  201,  202— the  value 
of  his  work,  203,  204— his  hand 
in  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion, 249 — withdraws  from  the 
Cabinet,  505  —  becomes  Chief 
Justice,  506. 

"  Commercial,"  The  Cincinnati — 
gives  an  obituary  notice  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  675. 

Congress— assembles,  July  4, 1861, 
its  composition  and  officers, 
29— its  course,  work,  and  spirit 
in  this  session,  52,  53,  54,  55, 
56,  57,  58,  59— meets  in  De- 
cember, 1861,  127 — its  work  in 
the  winter  of  1861,  147,  148, 
161,  165,  166,  167  — abolishes 
slavery  in  the  District,  166,  167, 
168,  169— legislates  for  the  freed 


INDEX. 


696 


negroes  in  the  District,  171, 
172 — passes  a  bill  forever  for- 
bidding slavery  in  any  of  the 
Territories,  172 — passes  an  act 
as  to  the  disposition  of  slaves 
seeking  refuge  in  the  armies, 
173,  175,  176 — raises  a  feeble 
cry  against  the  course  of  France 
as  to  Mexico,  195,  196 — accepts 
and  puts  forward  Mr.  Chase's 
"greenback"  financial  plan, 
201,  202— takes  note  of  the  dis- 
loyal newspapers,  218  —  as- 
sembles in  December,  1862, 
256— its  acts,  280,  281— admits 
West  Virginia,  281 — assembles 
in  December,  1863,  456 — its  acts 
at  this  time,  477,  480,  481,  482— 
repeals  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  481,  482 — its  acts  in  the 
winter  of  1864,  530,  531— its 
crowning  act,  531,  532 — revives 
the  rank  of  Lieutenant-General 
and  recommends  the  appoint- 
ment of  Grant,  546,  547. 

Contrabands — their  treatment  in 
Washington,  171 — General  But- 
ler presents  their  case  to  the 
Administration,  173,  174 — dis- 
position made  of  them  in  the 
armies,  174,  175 — turning  them 
into  soldiers,  175,  446. 

Convention,  Presidential — the 
Republican  malcontents,  at 
Cleveland,  499,  500  — Republi- 
can, at  Baltimore  in  1864,  501, 
502 — Democratic,  in  Chicago  in 

1864,  504. 

D 

Davis,  Jefferson  —  his  view  of 
Harper's  Ferry,  11  —  on  the 
field  at  Bull  Run,  begins  to 
quarrel  with  his  generals,  26 — 
his  trifling  talk  about  "uncon- 
stitutional," 47 — calls  his  legis- 


lature, his  arguments,  his  in- 
auguration, 73,  74,  75 — he  ex- 
emplifies the  one-man  power, 
79,  80 — resorts  to  conscription, 
83  —  his  dissensions  with  his 
generals  and  others,  26,  84,  302, 
325,  326,  550 — his  views  of  for- 
eign influence,  194  —  his  view 
of  association  with  the  North- 
ern miscreants,  279— his  posi- 
tion and  power,  325 — his  course 
as  to  negro  soldiers,  446,  570 — 
his  views  of  peace  and  the 
Union,  494,  495,  534,  542— his 
stubborn  etTorts  to  prolong  the 
war,  541,  566,  570 — visits  Hood, 
554. 

Democrats — the  wicked  and  er- 
roneous course  of  some  of  their 
leaders,  187,  206,  208,  209,  218, 
227,  278,  279,  531,  532  — the 
masses  of  ihem  desert  the 
leaders  for  the  time  and  go  to 
the  help  of  the  country,  187 — a 
verdict  concerning  their  party 
as  such,  209— acts  of  some  of 
their  disloj'al  organizations, 
212,  221. 

Dennison,  Governor  AVm. — pre- 
sides in  the  Republican  con- 
vention, 501  —  becomes  Post- 
master-General, 505,  506. 

Documents  and  Messages  —  Mr. 
Lincoln's  first  message  to  Con- 
gress, 30,  46,  47 — section  of  Con- 
fiscation Act,  70  —  Fremont's 
slavery  and  confiscation  proc- 
lamation, 96  —  Mr.  Lincoln's 
first  annual  message,  127,  146 — 
his  message  proposing  com- 
pensated emancipation,  157  — 
]Mr.  Lincoln's  preliminary 
Emancipation  Proclamation, 
239 — the  Emancipation  Proc- 
lamation,   246  —  Mr.   Lincoln's 


696 


INDEX. 


second  annual  message,  256 — 
Mr.  Lincoln's  general  war 
order,  281  —  McClellan's  won- 
derful letter,  336— Mr.  Lincoln's 
retaliatory  order,  447 — Mr.  Lin- 
coln's third  annual  message, 
455  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  amnesty 
proclamations,  472,  475  —  Mr. 
I-incoln's  speech  at  Gettysburg, 
487 — Mr.  Lincoln's  remarkable 
speech  after  his  second  elec- 
tion, 510 — Mr.  Lincoln's  fourth 
annual  message,  513 — -Mr.  Lin- 
coln's second  inaugural  address, 
542 — Mr.  Lincoln's  last  speech, 
572. 

Emancipation — the  work  of  be- 
gun by  the  President,  157 — in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  166 — 
in  the  Territories,  172 — com- 
pensated, again  presented,  233, 
280 — of  the  runaway  slaves  of 
rebels,  237 — Mr.  Lincoln's  pre- 
liminary Proclamation  issued, 
239  —  his  final  Proclamation, 
246. 

England— her  hand  and  sympa- 
thies in  the  RebelHon,  20,  82, 
83 — her  naval  system  rejected, 
120  —  the  evil  work  of  her 
writers    and   newspapers,   122, 

123,  183  —  her  avarice  over- 
shadows her  former  Abolition 
pretensions,  122 — two  great 
victories  over  her,  123  —  her 
blockade     schemes     thwarted, 

124,  125 — her  merchant- vessel 
boarded  by  American  seamen, 
177 — claims  a  ground  of  war, 
178 — her  unfriendly  and  wicked 
desires  as  to  this  country,  178, 

179,  183,  186,  187— accepts  the 
explanation  in  the  Trent  Case, 

180,  181,  183— the    motives    of 


her  ministry  and  people,  186, 
188,  189,  452— her  aid  to  the 
Rebellion,  189,  190,  191,  452— 
loses  her  title  to  "  mistress  of 
the  seas,"  190 — considers  her 
chances  for  territorial  extension 
in  America,  191,  192  —  with- 
draws from  the  European  coali- 
tion, 194 — her  sailors  no  match 
for  Americans,  humbled  in  the 
last  conflict  at  sea,  453,  454. 
"Enquirer,"  The  Cincinnati — 
gives  an  account  of  the  funeral 
of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  677. 


Farragut,  Capt.\in  D.  G. — enters 
the  Mississippi,  286,  287— at- 
tacks Forts  Jackson  and  Philip, 
takes  New  Orleans,  goes  up  to 
Yicksburg,  287,  288. 

Floyd,  John  B.  —  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, 88,  89,  90— at  Fort  Donel- 
son.  111,  115. 

Foote,  Commodore  A.  H. — takes 
Fort  Henry,  109— fails  at  Fort 
Donelson,  112,  113 

France — hastens  to  acknowledge 
the  rebels  as  belligerents,  186, 
192  —  her  emperor  starts  a 
scheme  for  establishing  her 
authority  in  Mexico,  191,  192, 
193 — her  aid  to  the  American 
Rebellion,  194,  205 — withdraws 
her  troops  from  Mexico,  198, 
199 — offers  her  service  as  paci- 
ficator, 204. 

Fremont,  General  John  C. — takes 
command  in  INlissouri,  90 — his 
course,  difficulties,  character, 
removal,  91,  94,  95,  96,  97,  98, 
99,  100,  101— in  West  Virginia, 
284 — nominated  by  the  mal- 
contents, 500— declined  to  make 
the  race,  his  reasons,  501. 


INDEX. 


697 


GiLLMORE,  General  Q.  A. — bat- 
ters down  Fort  Sumter,  438 — 
enters  Charleston,  565. 

Grant,  General  U.  S. — takes  Pa- 
ducah,  marches  against  Bel- 
mont, 104 — gets  into  a  close 
place  and  cuts  his  way  out, 
105— at  Fort  Henry,  108,  109— 
says  he  will  take  Fort  Donel- 
son  on  a  certain  day,  110 — 
fights  the  battle  of  Fort  Donel- 
son,  110,  111,  112,  113, 114, 115— 
at  Pittsburg  Landing,  289 — 
fights  the  battle  of  Shi  lob,  290, 
291,  292,  293,  294,  295,  300,  301— 
in  Tennessee,  303 — his  Vicks- 
burg  campaign,  424,  425,  426, 
427,  428,  429  — his  new  com- 
mand, 433  —  at  Chattanooga, 
434,  435,  436,  437  — becomes 
Lieutenant-General,  gets  a  gold 
medal,  477 — appointed  to  the 
command  of  all  the  armies, 
becomes      Lieutenant-General, 

546,  547 — his  views  and  course, 

547,  548,  555 — begins  his  march 
to  Richmond,  556 — encounters 
Lee  in  the  Wilderness,  at  Spott- 
aylvania  Court  House,  Cold 
Harbor,  557 — before  Richmond, 
the  cost  of  his  bloody  cam- 
paign, 558,  559  —  consents  to 
Sherman's  march  to  the  sea, 
562  —  his  operations  before 
Richmond,  563,  564  —  becomes 
uneasy  about  Lee's  escape, 
567 — takes  possession  of  Rich- 
mond, 568 — presses  Lee  to  sur- 
render, 568,  569  —  ordered  to 
take  command  of  Sherman's 
proceedings,  authorizes  the 
terms  of  Johnston's  surrender, 
569  —  attends  President  Lin- 
coln's last  Cabinet  meeting,  577. 


Greeley,  Horace  —  prints  a  long, 
rude  letter  to  the  President, 
235  —  his  foundationless  and 
evil  peace  scheme  on  the 
Canada  border,  488,  489,  490, 
491,  492,  493. 

H 

Habeas  Corpus — the  President 
disposes  of  habeas  corpus  in  his 
first  message,  37,  46 — a  theme 
with  the  sympathizers,  148, 
149 — a  test  case  under  the  writ 
of,  149,  150,  151,  152— the  Chief 
Justice's  course  on,  149,  150 — 
opinions  on,  151, 152— sketch  of 
its  fate  during  the  war,  154, 
155,  156,  157,  158— used  to  aid 
the  Rebellion,  210 — it  was  Con- 
stitutional, 215. 

Halleck,  General  H.  W. — takes 
command  of  the  Department 
of  the  West,  101 — gives  Grant 
permission  to  take  Fort  Henry, 
108 — his  claims  on  account  of 
Fort  Donelson,  116  —  advances 
into  Tennessee,  retires  and  re- 
instates Grant,  289 — plays  with 
Buell,  291— takes  command  at 
Shiloh,  300 — his  fictitious  dis- 
patch, 301,  302— goes  to  Wash- 
ington, 302 — takes  command  of 
all  the  forces,  visits  McClellan, 
366— reviews  McClellan's  case, 
367  —  commands  McClellan  to 
send  troops  to  Pope  and 
abandon  the  Peninsula,  371 — 
commands  McClellan  to  move 
into  Virginia,  390— relieves  Mc- 
Clellan, 392 — his  manners  and 
conduct,  397 — arrests  Hooker, 
413 — becomes  chief  of  staff,  548. 

Holland,  J.  G.— tells  Mr.  Bate- 
man's  story  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
religion,  612,  615. 


698 


INDEX. 


Hood,  General  J.  B. — his  estimate 
of  Johnston's  army,  549— super- 
sedes Johnston,  552 — abandons 
Atlanta,  553  —  his  fatal  cam- 
paign in  Tennessee,  554,  560, 
561. 

Hooker,  General  Joseph  —  his 
censure  of  McClellan,  323— his 
reprehensible  conduct  under 
Burnside,  403,  404— takes  com- 
mand of  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, 406 — his  course  and  fail- 
ure, 407, 408,  409,  410,  412,  413— 
goes  to  Tennessee  with  his 
corps,  433  —  his  performances, 
his  battle  above  the  clouds, 
435,  436,  437. 

House,  White— taken  possession 
of  by  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his 
family,  670  —  affairs  in,  under 
the  Lincolns,  670,  671,  672,  673, 
675. 

Hunter,  General  David  —  takes 
command  in  Missouri,  99 — his 
emancipation  orders,  231 ,  232 — 
abandons    West  Virginia,  558. 


Jackson,  General  T.  J. — at  first 
Bull  Run,  84 — his  operations 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
328  —  clears  the  valley,  and 
whips  the  Federals,  342,  343, 
377. 

Johnson,  Andrew  —  nominated 
for  the  Vice-Presidency,  502— 
takes  the  oath  of  office  as 
Vice-President,  542. 

Johnston,  General  Joseph  E. — 
destroys  Harper's  Ferry,  11— 
joins  Beauregard  at  Bull  Run, 
15— his  views  of  the  first  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  22,  24— his  views 
of  Yorktown,  319— his  error  in 
estimating     troops,     320  —  his 


statements,  323,  324— his  char- 
acter and  generalship,  326,  550, 
551 — wounded,  334  —  his  cam- 
paign from  Chattanooga  to 
Atlanta,  549,  550,  551,  552— his 
view  of  the  effect  of  his  success 
on  the  Northern  election,  550 — 
again  in  command,  565  —  sur- 
renders to  Sherman,  569. 


Lamon,  Ward  Hill  —  becomes 
Marshal  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,  his  high  hand,  171 — 
his  picture  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
Springfield,  668. 

Lee,  Robert  K.  —  goes  to  West 
Virginia,  89  —  returns  without 
honors  to  Richmond,  90  — 
takes  command  of  military 
matters  in  Virginia,  325  —  his 
acts  and  military  career,  348, 
349,  351,  .352,  377,  383,  384,  385, 
387,  388,  389,  402,  403,  404,  408, 
409,  410,  411,  412,  415,  416,  418, 
419,  421,  422,  556,  557,  564,  566, 
568,  569— meets  Grant,  556— 
forced  back  to  Riclimond,  finds 
more  than  his  match,  559 — asks 
for  terms  of  surrender,  506 — 
his  surrender,  568,  569. 

Letters — JNIr.  Lincoln's,  to  Gen- 
eral Fremont,  97  ;  to  Governor 
Seward,  213;  to  the  Copper- 
heads, 218,  221 ;  to  Horace 
Greeley,  235,  489,  492;  to  A.  G. 
Hodges,  250;  to  McClellan, 
314,  316,  319,  329,  331,  335,  345, 
356,  362,  363,  364 ;  to  General 
Grant,  429  — to  General  Scho- 
field,  439 ;  to  Chas.  Drake,  440 ; 
about  Dr.  McPheeters,  485 ;  to 
whom  it  may  concern,  490;  to 
Mr.  Raymond,  494 ;  to  the  Re- 
publicans,   503;    to  Mr.    Blair, 


INDEX. 


699 


535 ;  to  General  Weitzel,  571 — 
to  Mary  Owens,  639, 641— to  Mrs. 
Browning,  643 — McClellan's,  to 
Secretary  of  War,  321,  322,  330, 
344,  360— Halleck's,  to  McClel- 
lan,  367 — Jefferson  Davis's,  to 
Edmund  Kirk,  494;  to  F.  B. 
Blair,  534 — General  Grant's,  to 
Mr.  Stanton,  510— Mr.  Seward's, 
to  Mr.  Adams,  536— Mr.  Stan- 
ton's, to  General  Grant,  567 — 
Mary  S.  Owens's  to  W.  H. 
Herndon,  637. 
Lincoln,  President  —  sends  his 
first  message  to  Congress,  30 — 
its  character,  45,  46,  47 — his 
course  in  the  Presidential  of- 
fice, 46,  47,  48,  49,  61,  97,  101, 
119,  120,  121,  122,  127,  147,  149, 
154,  155,  156,  157,  160,  162,  165, 
166,  168,  171,  172,  176,  178,  183, 
186,  188,  197,  198,  203,  210,  212, 
216,  217,  221,  227,  234,  236,  237, 
239,  243,  246,  312,  314,  329,  367, 
881,  382,  397,  430,  43S,  439,  440, 
455,  472,  475,  480,  481,  482,  484, 
485,  493,  507,  513,  533,  534,  535, 
530,554,571,  572,577,  586,  587— 
his  wonderful  course  and  pa- 
tience with  McClellan,  86,  313, 
315,  316,  329,  331,  335,  342,  343, 
356,  362,  3(i7,  368,  373,  379,  380, 
397,  398— his  first  annual  mes- 
sage, 127,  146— his  character, 
147,  102,  165,  218,  230,  238,  239, 
249,  250,  314,  329,  397,  398,  399, 
414,  430,  481,  483,  484,  487,  493, 
509,  510,  535,  547,  554,  571,  578, 
579,  585,  586,  587,  588,  589,  591, 
593,  594,  595,  596,  597,  598,  599, 
600,  601,  602,  603,  606,  607,  631, 
635,  637,  642,  645,  653,  656,  658, 
660,  666,  667,  668,  673,  679— 
assails  a  Southern  doctrine  in 
his  message,  147— his  message 


to  Congress  proposing  com- 
pensated emancipation,  157  — 
treatment  of  his  views,  160, 
161,  162,  165— his  course  with 
slavery,  157,  161,  162,  165,  170, 
229,  230,  231,  232,  234,  235,  237, 

238,  239,  243,  246,  248,  249,  250, 
253,  254 — writes  a  cutting  let- 
ter to  Governor  Seymour,  213 — 
engages  in  discussing  his  course 
with  the  aiders  and  abbettors, 
218,  221,  227— his  pohcy  and 
conduct  indorsed  at  the  polls, 
228— again  presents  his  plan  of 
compensated  emancipation,  233, 
234 —  advises  the  freedmen  to 
seek  homes  in  another  country, 
234— writes  his  famous  letter  to 
Horace  Greeley,  23^ — his  re- 
ligion, 238,  239,  430,  544,  554, 
555,  596,  603,  609  to  632— writes 
and  issues  his  preliminary 
Emancipation       Procfemation, 

239,  243 — issues  the  Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation,  246 — signs 
many  copies  of  this  Proclama- 
tion, 249 — his  act,  describes  his 
motives  for  it,  249,  250,  253— 
how  it  was  viewed,  253,  254— 
his  greatest  acts,.  157,  233,  237, 
239,  243, 246— sends  to  Congress 
his  second  annual  message,  256, 
280 — issues  a  general  war  order, 
282 — begins  to  lose  confidence' 
in  McClellan,  282,  283— writes 
letters  to  McClellan,  touches 
the  weak  point,  316,  318— calls 
for  more  troops,  381 — sends  to 
Congress  his  third  annual  mes- 
sage, 455 — issues  his  amnesty 
proclamation  in  December, 
1863,  472 — his  reconstruction 
plan,  472,  475,  479,  481— makes 
a  speech  at  Gettysburg,  487, 
488  —  his     course     with     Mr. 


700 


INDEX. 


Greeley  and  his  pseudo  peace 
agents  in  Canada,  488  to  494 — 
renominated    for     the     Presi- 
dency,  502 — writes    his    letter 
of    acceptance,  503  —  calls    for 
more     soldiers,     506  —  makes 
speeches,   507  —  re-elected,  his 
view  of  this  success,  509 — makes 
a  remarkable   speech,  510 — his 
second    inauguration    and    his 
address,     542,     544  —  appoints 
Grant  to  the   command  of  all 
the    armies,     547  —  issues     a 
thanksgiving         proclamation, 
554 — publicly    thanks  General 
Sherman,  555 — meets  his  great 
captains  at    City    Point,  556 — 
directs  General  Grant    not    to 
touch  political  questions,  567 — 
enters  Richmond,  exhibits  his 
lenient    disposition,    571  —  his 
last    speech,    foreshadows   his 
reconstruction  policy,   572 — is- 
sues   a    proclamation    opening 
the   ports    and  stopping  draft- 
ing, calls  his  last  Cabinet  meet- 
ing,  577 — tells   of  his   dream, 
the  condition    of  his  mind  on 
the   14th   of   April,   1865,    577, 
578  —  attends  the  theater,  579, 
580 — his    assassination,   581  — 
his  funeral,  582,  583— his  attach- 
ment to  his  Cabinet,  his  demon- 
stration towards    Mr.  Stanton, 
588,  589— Mr.  Bancroft's  opin- 
ion of  him,  589 — Mr.  Emerson's 
opinion  of  him,  591  —  Mr.  Le- 
land's    opinion  of    him,   593 — 
was  he  great  and  good?  594 — 
his  story-telling,  594,  595 — his 
ambition,  its  modes,  its  founda- 
tion,   his   selfishness,    his    un- 
selfishness, 596,  597,   598,  599; 
604 — his  vision  of  two  faces  of 
himself,  601 — its  interpretation. 


602  —  his  dreams  of  himself, 
607,  608 — opinions  on  his  re- 
ligion, 611,  612,  630— his  court- 
ships and  marriage,  his  home- 
life,  632  to  669,  672,  673— be- 
comes involved  in  an  "  affair 
of  honor,"  his  wonderful  device 
to  avoid  a  duel,  656,  658,  659, 
660,  661— described  by  Mr.  La- 
mon,  668  —  his  course  in  the 
White  House,  670,671,672,  673, 
674 — his  conversation  with  his 
son,  678 — his  exalted  name, 
679. 

Lincoln,  Mary  —  her  parentage, 
visits  Springfield,  647  —  asked 
by  Mr.  Douglas  to  become  his 
wife,  designed  marrying  a  Pres- 
ident, 648  —  her  lofty  senti- 
ment, 649  — Mr.  Lincoln  de- 
clines to  appear  at  the  appoint- 
ed time  for  their  marriage,  650, 
653 — renew  their  engagement, 
marries  Mr.  Lincoln,  654 — her 
qualities,  character,  and  life, 
655,  656,  662,  665,  666,  667,  670, 
671,  672,  673,  674,  675  — writes 
for  the  newspaper  and  gets 
Mr.  Lincoln  into  an  affair  of 
honor,  656,  657,  658— her  judg- 
ment, 665  —  her  children,  664, 
669 — her  course  in  the  White 
House,  670,  671,  672,  673— her 
views  of  leading  men,  674 — her 
latter  years,  674,  675,  677— her 
death,  675,  676,  677. 

"Lost  Cause"  —  inaugurated  in 
form,  73,  74,  75,  76— its  despotic 
hand,  76,  77,  78,  81,  325  — its 
financial  weakness,  81,  82 — its 
attempts  to  get  foreign  aid, 
82  —  its  misfortunes  in  West 
Virginia,  89— its  affairs  on  the 
Mississippi  and  in  Kentucky, 
104,  105,  106,  107,  113,  114,  115, 


INDEX. 


701 


116 — its  limits  narrowed,  306 — 
its  naval  prospects  come  to  an 
end,  310  —  want  of  harmony 
among  its  leaders,  327 — its  vain 
hopes,  381  —  its  power  broken 
on  the  Mississippi,  428 — the 
strong  man  fixes  his  death 
gl-asp  upon,  563— its  final  col- 
lapse, 569. 
Lyon,  General  Nathaniel  —  his 
difficulties,  91,  92  — fights  the 
battle  of  Wilson's  Creek,  his 
death,  his  value,  and  character, 

92,  93. 

M 

Maximilian — Napoleon  prepares 
a  throne  for  him,  192 — he  seeks 
the  aid  of  the  Pope,  193  — 
left  to  his  fate  in  Mexico, 
198, 199. 

Meade,  General  George  G.— takes 
command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  413  —  his  uncertain 
course,  415, 416,  417,  418— fights 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  418, 
419,  422. 

McDowell,  General  Irwin  — 
moves  to  the  aid  of  Patterson, 
proposes  an  attack  on  the 
rebels  at  Manassas,  13  —  his 
view  adopted,  his  army  moves 
toward  Bull  Run,  14 — his  course 
in  the  battle,  15,  16,  17,  18,  22— 
not  deemed  satisfactory,  84 — 
his  operations  in  Virginia, 
ordered  to  re-enforce  McClel- 
lan,  342  —  startles  McClellan, 
344. 

McClellan,  General  George  B. — 
appears  as  a  champion  of  slav- 
ery, 67 — appointed  to  command 
the  armies,  85,  86 — his  unsatis- 
factory and  tardy  course  on  the 
Potomac,  87,  88,  174,  283,  284, 
312,  313 — writes  a  letter  indors- 


ing an  aider  and  abettor,  227 — 
put  at  the  head  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  in  the  field, 
283 — his  great  cause  of  failure, 
311,  312,  326,  329,  335— his  dila- 
toriness,  complaints,  and  un- 
manly course,  315,  316,  329, 
335,  343,  344,  345,  ■  362,  363, 
365,  384  —  goes  to  the  Penin- 
sula, 316  —  his  performances 
throughout  the  Peninsular 
campaign,  318  to  374  —  writes 
a  wonderful  letter  to  the  Pres- 
ident, 336,  339,  340— his  hand 
in  Pope's  failure,  376,  379, 
380— again  in  command  on  the 
Potomac,  378,  382,  383  —  his 
course  and  close  of  his  military 
career,  379,  380,  383,  384,  385, 
386,  387,  388,  389,  390,  391,  392— 
seeks  repose,  394  —  views  of 
him,  394,  395,  396,  397,  399, 
400 — nominated  for  the  Presi- 
dency, 504. 


Patterson,  General  Robert — at 
the  head  of  the  Pennsylvania 
troops,  10— his  failure,  11,  12, 
13,  23. 

Peace  — efi"orts  for,  488,  489,  490, 
491,  533,  534,  536,  537,  538,  539, 
540,  541  —  terms  of,  on  each 
side,  490,  492,  493,  535,  541— 
the  Copperheads  on,  493 — the 
rebels  on,  495, 496,  497, 541,  542. 

Polk,  Bishop  Leonidas — in  com- 
mand on  the  Missippi,  104 — 
his  death,  554. 

Pope,  General  John — his  feats  in 
Missouri,  102  —  his  brilliant 
operations  on  the  Mississippi, 

.  284,  285,  286— overdrawn  by 
Halleck,  302 — takes  command 
of  the  army  in  Virginia,  375— 


702 


INDEX. 


his  achievements  and  failure, 
376,  377,  378,  379,  380,  381. 
Price,  General  Sterling — in  the 
battle  of  Wilson's  Creek,  92, 
93  —  re-enters  Missouri,  95  — 
captures  a  large  Union  force 
at  Lexington,  98  —  driven  out 
of  the  State,  102  —  again  in 
Missouri,  446. 


Rebels  —  their  quarrels,  26,  84, 
302,  325,  550— put  down  their 
dogmas  of  State  Rights  and  se- 
cession, 50,  76— their  organized 
government,  its  course,  73, 
74  —  their  foreign  agents  ar- 
rested, 177 — their  views  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation, 
253,  254  —  their  praying,  297— 
their  generalship,  26,  27,  83, 
301,  302,  342,  377— again  set  out 
for  Independence  Hall,  377— 
their  course  as  to  negro  sol- 
diers, 446,  448  —  murder  the 
negroes  at  Fort  Pillow,  448 — 
their  naval  pretensions  and 
achievements,  450,  452,  453, 
454 — their  views  of  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Union,  494,  495, 496, 
497 — gather  their  forces  under 
Lee  and  Johnston,  548 — their 
last  desperate  efforts,  568,  569, 
570. 

Eepublicans— their  defeat  at  the 
polls  in  1862,  206— their  suc- 
cesses the  following  year,  227, 
228  —  their  intentions  as  to 
slavery  when  Mr.  Lincoln  be- 
came President,  229,  230— their 
West  Virginia  mistake,  281 — 
still  have  a  majority  in  Con- 
gress, 455— malcontents  among^ 
and  their  evil  machinations, 
498,  499,  500. 


Richmond — becomes  the  seat  of 
the  Rebellion,  74,  75  —  its  im- 
portance, 311,  566 — Grant  sits 
down  before  it,  558  —  its  final 
surrender  and  downfall,  568. 

Rosecrans,  General  Wm.  S. — suc- 
ceeds McClellan  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, 88 — whips  the  rebels  at 
Corinth,  303 — supersedes  Buell, 
305  —  at  Murfreesboro,  306, 
423— whipped  at  Chickamauga, 
431,  432 — superseded,  433 — goes 
to  Missouri,  446. 


Scott,  General  Winfield  —  his 
plans  for  the  three  months' 
men,  11  —  gives  Patterson  a 
task,  12 — opposes  the  plan  of 
attacking  the  rebels  at  Manas- 
sas, 13,  14. 

Selfishness — what  it  is  and  is  not, 
604,  605. 

Seward,  Wm.  H.  —  successfully 
conducts  the  Trent  Case,  180, 
181 — reviews  American  affairs, 
204,  205— his  hand  in  the  Navy, 
451 — his  letter  on  the  Mexican 
project  and  the  peace  efforts, 
536 — his  standing  with  and  es- 
timate of  Mr.  Lincoln,  584,  585, 
586. 

Seymour,  Horatio — elected  Gov- 
vernor  of  New  York,  206— his 
riotous  speeches,  210,  211 — 
writes  to  the  President  to  stop 
the  draft,  213 — his  subsequent 
conduct,  217. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T. — at  first 
Bull  Run,  84— at  Shik.h,  294— 
pursues  the  fleeing  rebels,  300 — 
at  Vicksburg,  303,  425,  426— at 
Chattanooga,  436,  437— goes  to 
the  relief  of  Burnside,  438 — 
Grant's  view  of  him,  548 — his 


INDEX. 


703 


march  from  Chattanooga  to 
Atlanta,  549,  550,  551,  552— his 
battles  around  Atlanta,  553, 
554— hie  march  to  the  sea,  562 — 
marches  into  North  Carolina 
565,  566— meets  President  Lin- 
coln and  General  Srant,  566— 
his  negotiations  with  Johnston, 
561),  570. 

Sheridan,  General  Philip  —  in 
command  of  the  cavalry  in  Vir- 
ginia, 557 — clears  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley,  564  —  whips  and 
outgenerals  Lee,  568. 

Shields,  General  James— insulted 
by  Mary  Todd,  wants  blood, 
his  escape,  658,  659,  660,  66L 

Slavery — difhculty  with  at  the 
outset  of  the  war,  62,  66,  67— 
General  Butler's  course  with, 
67,  68,  69— course  of  the  Ad- 
ministration with,  69,  70,  157, 
161,  162,  165— in  the  army,  67, 
69,  71,  165,  206— abolished  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  166, 
167,  168 — its  offensive  hold  up- 
on the  District,  169,  170,  171— 
the  question  of,  too  much  for 
many  Northern  men,  206 — final 
steps  for  its  overthrow  by  the 
President  and  Congress,  230  to 
255. 

Slaves — two  contrary  views  as  to 
them,  62,  63 — their  civilization 
and  religion,  64,  65,  66 — de- 
clared to  be  "contrabands," 
67,  71  —  the  losses  of  under 
the  Fugitive  Act  for  twenty 
years,  72. 

Smith,  E.  Kirby — appears  with 
re-enforcements  at  Bull  Run, 
18— in  Kentucky,  304. 

Speed,  Joshua  F. — takes  Lincoln 
to  Kentucky,  650 — Mr.  Lin- 
coln helps  him  to  correct  his 


own  erroneous  love  views,  651, 
753. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M. — ofTers  his 
resignation,  588 — his  lamenta- 
tion over  the  death  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  589. 

States,  Northern — views  of  their 
people  as  to  the  first  Bull  Run 
and  the  conquest  of  the  South, 
19,  23,  26— their  dark  days, 
204 — the  anti-war  element  of, 
successful  in  the  electi»ns, 
206 — make  a  4th  of  July  effort 
to  push  forward  the  great  work 
of  saving  the  country,  209, 
210— mobs  in,  210,  211,  212— 
their  loyal  people  carry  the 
elections  in  1863,  228  — their 
views  of  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  253,  254 — pray- 
ing of  their  people,  297. 

States,  Southern — views  of  their 
people  on  the  first  Bull  Run, 
19,  20,  24,  25  — their  cry  of 
"  Forward  to  Washington," 
26 — the  faith  of  their  people 
in  the  "Lost  Cause,"  82  — 
their  attempts  to  extend  slav- 
ery outside  of  the  United 
States,  191 . 

Stephens,  A.  H.  —  goes  to  ne- 
gotiate for  peace,  541  —  gives 
up  the  rebel  cause,  541. 


Thomas,  General  George  H. — 
fights  the  battle  of  Mill 
Springs,  116 — saves  the  army 
at  Chickamau'ga,  431,  432  — 
supersedes  Rosecrans,  433 — at 
Chattanooga,  437 — goes  to  Ten- 
nessee to  oppose  Hood,  560 — 
whips  Hood  and  pursues  him 
into  Alabama,  560  —  his  last 
grand  achievement,  561. 


704 


INDEX. 


"  Times,"  The  London — its  course 
toward  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, 20,  21,  182— its  evil  work 
in  the  cause  of  the  Rebellion, 
183,  184,  185. 

Trent  Case— sketch  of,  177,  178, 
179,  180,  181. 


W 

Wet^LEe,  Gideon— at  the  head  of 
the  Navy,  his  character,  patri- 
otism, great  services,  118,  119, 
123,  124,  178,  449,  450,  451— 
thanks  Wilkes,  178  —  resists 
Mr.  Sewafd,  451. 


f 


